


Well, That Happened...

by MELONYPRIMEINK



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-01-22 19:51:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 41,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12489536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MELONYPRIMEINK/pseuds/MELONYPRIMEINK
Summary: Annabeth, Lynelle, Pruedence, Claire, Nadia, Miko, Susan, and Sydney live a fairly normal life. Well, as normal as eight girls nicknamed after Autobots who have to fight seven guys nicknamed after Decepticons almost daily can live. But they couldn't be more different from each other, their love of Transformers being all that connects them besides their unlikely friendships.Then one day... they're world was gone and they were suddenly in 2007 instead of 2017 and a house in Tranquility, California instead of their beach house in Clearwater, Florida.Now they'll have to fight to survive in a world they only knew as fiction while the timeline is in a constant shift around them. It's their friendship, their bodies, their new friends, their hearts, their lives, and their existence itself on the line.And all they can say at the end of the day, "Well, that happened..."





	1. Piece of Paradise (Starkill)

_**I search my heart** _   
_**I search my mind** _   
_**Forgetting all I know** _   
_**Leave everything behind** _

_**Searching** _   
_**For something missing** _   
_**A glimmer in the darkness** _   
_**A piece of paradise** _

 

As the sun shone through the windows of the beach house its residents had varied reactions.

Prudence had been up for hours working with her practice katana on the roof and welcomed the added light.

Annabeth had been up for an hour longer than Prudence and was sitting on the porch. She smiled as she looked up momentarily from her journal where she was busy scribbling down battle strategies.

Lynelle sat up in bed and stretched with a smile before she slid out of her warm bed. 

Nadia hit her stereo on before she dragged herself out of bed and shuffled to her bathroom.

Claire jumped out of bed and rushed out of her room, already smelling food.

Miko smiled as Claire ran into the kitchen and served her a portion of today's breakfast- scrambled eggs, French toast, and bacon.

Susan rolled over and hid under her blankets, hoping for another hour of sleep.

And Sydney was just slipping into the house. 

"Good morning Sideswipe. Have a good night?" Miko asked as the girl tried to run past the kitchen.

"Hi, Ratchet. Hi, Ironhide," Sydney replied meekly as she walked back over to the large island.

"Don't "hi Ironhide" me, Sides. Where were you this time?" Claire demanded.

"We both know the answer to that question, Ironhide. The better question is how was this guy? Date worthy?" Nadia asked as she walked into the kitchen, headphones hanging from her neck softly playing music.

"He was actually worse than I thought. So no, Jazz. I spent the whole night trying to ditch the guy. All those years of figure skating training didn't do me squat," Sydney replied.

"Then go get some sleep. We'll wake you before we head out later," Annabeth said as she walked into the house.

"Yes, Optimus," Sydney nodded before she hurried off to bed.

Claire and Miko gave Annabeth a questioning look while Nadia shrugged as she took a plate from Miko.

"Where are we going, Optimus?" Lynelle asked as she snagged the plate from Nadia.

"Hey!" Nadia protested.

"The mall. There's a new movie out that I'd like to treat you all too," Annabeth responded as she gave Nadia another plate and got herself one as well.

"Breakfast smells great, Ratchet," Prue smiled as she jogged in and placed her katana on the table.

"No weapons on the table, Arcee!" Miko scolded the girl. 

"Geez, sorry, Hatchet," Prue rolled her eyes as she picked it back up.

"Ew. Go take a shower, will ya, Arcee? You're stinking up breakfast," Claire complained.

Prue stuck her tongue out before she disappeared towards her room.

There was a long pause in the conversation as everyone ate, the only noises being the consumption of food and Prue showering.

The silence finally got to Lynelle and she was the first to speak again, "So what's this movie? I thought the new Transformers movie wasn't out until next month."

"It's not Transformers but it is a surprise," Annabeth replied.

"Aw come on, Prime. That's not fair," Claire complained.

"I promise you won't be-" Annabeth was interrupted by something hitting the window.

"What the pit was that?" Nadia asked.

Miko and Lynelle ran over to the floor to ceiling wall of windows and instantly glared. 

"Decepticons!" Lynelle announced.

"Jazz, go get Sideswipe and Arcee! The rest of you, battle stations!" Annabeth ordered.

The girls sprang into action, Nadia heading for the bedrooms and the others gathering their weapons as the ran for the door.

"Megatron! What is the meaning of this?" Annabeth demanded as she stood slightly in front of the other girls.

Annabeth had been an obvious choice for leader since she was the only one with leadership experience. However she's never been anything but humble no matter her personal achievements; this was how she earned the nickname Optimus Prime.

"We thought you Autoscum could use a nice wake up call, Prime," Alistar sneered.

A group of 7 guys around the same age as the girls stood opposite of them. All of them were a similar height that only varied slightly from guy to guy, the same went for their brown and black hair and the way they wore it. Their faces and body shapes were the only thing they kept them from being carbon copies of each other.

"We were already up. All you did was interrupt breakfast," Prue laughed as she, Sydney, and Nadia ran up, weapons at the ready. 

Sydney was only wearing pajama shorts and a tank top while Prue was fully dressed but her hair was still dripping wet.

"Pity," Josh smirked at the katana wielding brunette.

Prue pretended to gag making Claire chuckle as she shifted her grip on her duel tasers.

Prue prefers to let her katana speak usually but when she does it's usually to hand out witty and spite filled comments to their enemies; this is how she ended up with the nickname Arcee. That and she's the only one who owns a motorcycle. 

Claire might as well be a guy sometimes and she sure loves her tasers, but if you're gonna be in a fight she's the one you want watching your back; this is how she got the nickname Ironhide.

Beside her Lynelle expanded her baton which could become electrified with the push of a button and Miko unlocked her pepper spray.

Lynelle may be the girly girl of the girls' little group but when it comes to her Chevy Impala and bullies she's got quite the "sting"; that's how she received the nickname Bumblebee. 

Miko was usually the odd man out since it was eight to seven so she played medic, she's nice until you get hurt- then she's a real witch; this was how she earned the nickname Ratchet.

Alistar did a brief hand motion and Jack, Fabian, Harley, Josh, Taylor, and Cain encircled the girls, forcing them to fight or retreat into the house.

Sydney growled as she and Susan moved back to back, MMA gloves raised and ready to dish out punches.

Sydney and Susan are the only ones with any real connection beyond a fandom- they're blood sisters.

Sydney's always rushed head first into fights- especially to protect her little sister- but is always the first to lighten the mood whether they win or loose; that's how she was deemed Sideswipe.

Susan is quick to follow her sister but after being the center of their parents attention all her life- to the point where Sydney was ignored- she'd rather keep her interaction with people to just her sister; this is how she earned the nickname Sunstreaker.

"Force them back then make a break for the cars as soon as you see a window," Annabeth ordered.

"Right, Optimus," The girls chorused.

Nadia flipped her headphones into speaker mode, cranked the volume, and hit play. Dum Dee Dum by Keys N Krates rang out across the beach.

Nadia's always the most up to date with modern pop culture out of the eight and is quick with the perfect song for a moment; she was the first to earn a nickname, her's being Jazz.

"Autobots, roll out!" Annabeth yelled.

The fight was a blur.

Annabeth went straight for Alistar, quickly landing a punch straight to his jaw, it didn't hurt him as much as she hopped seeing as her MMA gloves had a medium level of padding. Still they exchanged blow after blow as Annabeth tried her best to force the man back so she could escape with her friends.

Lynelle was quick to strike Cain in the leg with her baton. She whirled around and jabbed the baton into his stomach before electrifying it. Cain stepped back away from the slight sting before he swung at her with his police baton.

Jack was at Claire's throat almost instantly.

"Back off Screamer," she seethed as she tased him at point blank.

He fell back away from her and into Fabian.

Fabian yelled at his friend as he shoved Jack off his and blocked one of Nadia's punches.

"Lay off Blackout," Jack hissed as he rode out the bolts of electricity.

Nadia saw an opening and roundhouse kicked the man in the stomach. He stumbled back way from her landing at the feet of Josh and Prue.

Prue was relentless as she stepped over Fabian and continued to try and cut Josh down.

"Having fun yet, Sunny?" Harley whispered as he yanked Susan in close to him.

Susan was pissed at the sound of the nickname, "Don't call me Sunny, Soundwave!" She landed a solid elbow to his gut and he tripped backwards over Jack.

Everyone glanced up at the sound of Sydney's yell as she jumped off the porch at Taylor. He was taunting her, trying to piss her off enough to make her sloppy. It was obviously working as she had taken him down with her, had him pinned to the ground, and was trying to punch his lights out.

"Sides stop! Sideswipe! Sydney!" Susan tried to pull her older sister off the man, "Syd you've won. Forget Sideways and let's go."

Sydney let herself be pulled off Taylor by Susan and Lynelle before they dragged her towards Lynelle's black 1967 Chevy Impala.

Lynelle climbed in the driver seat and tore off followed by Annabeth, Susan, Nadia, Miko, and Claire in Annabeth's Jeep Wrangler and Prue on her motorcycle.

The girls didn't slow down even after they were a few miles from the house in case they had been followed.

"You can't keep letting him get under your skin like that, Sides. He'll do it forever if you let him," Lynelle spoke up finally.

"And we shouldn't have to run from our own house every time they try to pick a fight with us, Bee. Damn Decepticons," Sydney growled.

"We've done everything short of a restraining order, Sides. They'll just keep coming back. It's the thrill of the fight they're after, like they actually enjoy getting beat up by a bunch of girls or something."

Sydney cracked a smile before she caved and laughed.

Lynelle smiled, "There's my best friend."

Sydney smiled back before she looked down at her pajamas.

"Hey are my extra clothes still in here?" She asked as she turned around and started looking around in the backseat.

Lynelle glanced back at her, "Probably not. Remember, we cleaned back there recently."

"Hey, my skates! I was looking for these!" Sydney grinned as she turned around with two red and black inline skates in hand.

"Ratchet made you put them in here after she banned them from in the house. 

"Right, right."

"You look like you just won the lottery, Sides," Lynelle chuckled.

"I did, cause I found my ice skates back there too," Sydney responded as she pulled said skates up into her lap and draped them over her shoulders by the tied together laces.

"Well, at least you're happy again."

Sydney shrugged as she pulled out her phone and checked her email, "Hey, Forgotten Pasts finally updated!"

A few yards in front of the Impala that was leading the little convoy, a bright pink ball rolled out into the road. Sydney looked up and her smile dropped as she witnessed a little girl run out into the road in front of them.

"Lynelle look out!" She exclaimed as she reached over and yanked the wheel to the right.

The Impala swerved off the road still doing at least 50 mph. Lynelle tried to bring the Impala back on to the road while still avoiding the girl.

The other girls watched in horror as the Impala swerved and flipped before it started to roll down the road. Annabeth slammed on the brakes but it was too late and the Jeep plowed into the Impala. Prue swerved to avoid farther pile up only to get clipped by the rear of the Jeep swinging around and get launched over the guardrail.

By the time the vehicles came to a complete stop the air was filled with screams of terror, yells of the neighbors as they ran up to try and get the girls out, smoke from the Impala, and crying from the little girl whose mother had pulled her out of the road just in time. 

"Hang on, just hang on. 911 will be here any minute," someone said as a small group started to try and pull Annabeth, Claire, Nadia, Susan, and Miko free. 

Miko's head lulled to the side and she noticed the gas leaking from the Impala and trail towards the already ablaze fire.

"Get away! The Impala's gonna blow!" She exclaimed.

"What?" The man questioned.

"Get everyone away from the cars or a lot more people are gonna die!" Claire yelled.

The man nodded, "Everyone get back! One of the cars is gonna blow!"

The five in the Jeep grabbed each other as they watched the gas meet the fire and the fire spread back towards the Impala.

The Impala exploded and threw the closest people back away from the crash. 

From the grass Prue started to cry as she watched the fire consume her friends. She knew none of them would live through the explosion nor would she live through the piece of broken guardrail that had impaled her as she landed.

She slowly closed her eyes and welcomed death as she listened the sirens approach.


	2. Echo (Vocaloid)

_**What the hell's going on** _   
_**Can someone tell me please?** _   
_**Why, I'm switching faster than channels on TV** _

_**I'm black then I'm white** _   
_**No, something isn't right** _   
_**My enemy's invisible** _   
_**I don't know how to fight** _

_**The trembling fear is more than I can take** _   
_**When I'm up against the echo in the mirror** _   
_**ECHO** _

 

The harsh white light was not well welcomed by the eight girls as they slowly sat up and shielded their eyes.

“Ah, you've finally awoken,” a voice boomed from the light.

“Awoken? Weren't we just in a massive car accident? Didn't we like explode and burn to death or something?” Nadia asked as she stood.

“That is true. You were in a car accident but you did not all die from the explosion. Lynelle and Sydney were dead by the time the car stopped rolling; they were crushed, Prudence was impaled by a piece of the guardrail she landed by; she bled out before help could arrive, Annabeth and Claire died from the explosion, and the rest of you burned to death,” the voice responded.

“I so did not need to know that,” Susan complained.

“What the hell’s going on then? How are we not dead?” Sydney demanded.

“You are all dead, in your dimension. But in my dimension you don't even exist yet. It is here you will live out the remainder of your lives.”

Claire let her head fall to the side as she gave the light a glare, “Sorry God, but no thanks. I think we’re fine with only dying once.”

“I am not this “God” you speak of,” the voice boomed.

“Did we just become a fanfiction?” Nadia whispered to Miko.

“I believe so,” Miko answered.

“This is so cliché,” Prue groaned.

“Yeah. Can we go now? I think we’d all prefer death to whatever hell awaits us in “your dimension”,” Sydney added.

Annabeth rubbed her temples in annoyance, “Girls, I don't think he’s giving us a choice about this.”

“You are correct, Annabeth,” the voice seemed at least kinda calm for the first time.

The eight girls looked among each other for a few minutes as if they were mentally communicating.

Lynelle sighed as she dropped her head and shoulders in defeat, “Fine then. Send us to where you want us. We’ll figure it out somehow.”

“I intended to. However I will send you with gifts to make my dimension easier for you to… uh… survive in,” the voice responded, “For Miko, you like to remain out of the fight as much as possible but incase fate ever calls upon you I bestow upon you a single energy pistol.”

The pistol materialized out of the light and floated towards the now scared looking woman. She hesitantly held her hands out and the small pistol dropped into them. A leather holster appeared on her thigh for the weapon.

She squeaked out a small thank-you as she holstered the gun and bowed as much as she could while sitting.

“For Nadia, you live and breathe music but don't mind a good fight, for you I bestow a soundwave gun.”

Nadia grinned as the weapon materialized and floated towards her. She grabbed it out of the air and looked it over. It had a strap on it so it could hang off her without her having to carry it all the time.

“Aw yeah!” She cheered, “I mean, thank-you sir.”

Claire and Miko giggled at their friend’s embarrassed face.

“For Claire, you love any fight but you love guns even more therefor you will teach the team how to use their weapons. I bestow upon you a pair of energy pistols and an energy blaster.”

Claire stood and grabbed the pistols before they were all the way to her. The blaster materialized hanging from her back and two holsters appeared on either thigh.

“Sweet. Thank-you, sir. I'll try my best to teach the others,” Claire bowed her head to show her respect.

“For Prudence, you prefer to be silent and allow your blades to speak for you therefore I bestow a set of duel katanas on you.”

Prue stood beside Claire and carefully took the katanas in hand. They were real instead of the practice katana she had had back home. The brunette did a few moves to get used to them as a holster for them formed strapped to her back. She sheathed the swords and nodded her thanks.

“For Susan, you only fight to remain by your sister’s side but I'm afraid that will have to change in my dimension. You must learn to stand on your own without the support of others. I bestow upon you a bo staff with various fighting modes.”

Susan was scared by the voice’s words but she stood anyway and took up the metal bo staff, “Thank-you. I'll try my hardest.”

A small pouch appeared on her side, meaning the staff was collapsible.

“For Lynelle, may your “sting” strike down your enemies, I bestow upon you a whip that may be electrified.”

Lynelle was too excited to speak as the whip landed in her hands. A belt with a place to attach the weapon materialized around her hips.

“For Sydney, you always are the first to jump into a fight. But where your friends go head first and give themselves time to think it over you go fists first knowing only to protect them. They will not leave you, my dear. So continue to go fists first.”

Sydney’s weapons materialized straight on to her wrists. The girls recognized what they were instantly seeing as Miko had made them all watch the anime at least once.

“Aren't those Yang’s gauntlets from RWBY?” Claire questioned.

Sydney copied how she had seen the fictional character activate the weapons and they expanded.

“Yep. Except they're red instead of yellow. Thank-you,” Sydney answered.

The voice paused before the light shifted to Annabeth.

“For Annabeth, you will continue to lead this team and hold your friends together for a long time to come. Do with these well.”

A belt with two pouches materialized around the brunettes hips. She opened one to find a rather large assortment of brass knuckles.

“Thank-you, sir. For all of our gifts,” Annabeth spoke as she looked up.

“Good luck girls!”

With that the light exploded and raged towards the eight girls.

“Hold on to each other!” Annabeth ordered.

She refused to lose her friends again.

The girls interlocked hands just before the light consumed them.

 

* * *

 

Prudence groaned as she maneuvered her hands underneath herself and pushed her body up out of the bed.

Annabeth blinked in confusion as she looked around at an unfamiliar bedroom.

Lynelle sat up in bed and stretched before she frozen and eyed the foreign room, suspicious and on edge.

Nadia swatted at the nightstand looking for her stereo and when she couldn't find it the African American woman dragged herself out of bed only to freeze.

Claire jumped out of bed and rushed towards her door, stopping mid step- and stumbling- when she noted the absent smell of Miko cooking breakfast.

Miko rolled over and straight out of bed on to the floor, “What the- ow!”

Susan rolled over and hid under her blankets, hoping for another hour of sleep.

And Sydney startled awake by the sound of Miko hitting the floor. She unstuck herself from the floorboards and wiped the drool off her face before she looked around.

“What the hell’s going on?” The girls asked in unison.

Slowly the eight friends exited their rooms and met in the hallway.

“Question number one: Where the hell are we?” Nadia started.

“Question two: How the hell did we get here?” Claire added.

“Three: How do we get home?” Miko finished.

Sydney was scrolling through on a generation one iPhone she had found on the floor outside one of the doors as she walked around the circle to an open spot.

“Current location is Tranquility, California. I'm pretty sure we died and then were swallowed by the brightest light I've ever seen to get here. And… I think this is suppose to be home now,” She rattled off.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up. Tranquility, California? Syd, what’s today’s exact date?” Lynelle asked.

“Today’s date is… Saturday M- March, 28th… 2007,” Sydney replied slowly.

“Shit.”

Lynelle and Claire disappeared back into the rooms they had originally come from.

“This is has officially evolved past cliché now,” Prue groaned before she walked downstairs.

“I already miss 2017. Where is my stereo?” Nadia complained.

Susan turned to her with a judgmental look on her face, “That's what you're concerned about? Not the fact that we’re in another dimension where the date is over ten years in the past, but your stereo. Please reprioritize Nad.”

“Oh really Sue?” Nadia stepped up close to get in Susan’s face.

“Alright everyone calm down. We need to not panic and figure out exactly where we are and what we were given those weapons for,” Annabeth jumped in as she separated the two girls.

“Anna’s right. We need to be rational and do our research before we freak out over what might be nothing at all,” Sydney nodded.

“Well, that's easy. We’re in a world where the Transformers exist. And the weapons are for the Decepticons,” Claire responded as she poked her head back into the hall.

“How do you know that? Didn't the Autobots not arrive till June or something of 2007?” Sydney asked, she was more of a G1 than a Bayverse fan and didn't take the time to remember the little things from that version of Transformers.

“Yes but Tranquility, California? That's were Sam Witwicky lives. 2007? That's when the first movie occurred. But Lennox and Epps wouldn't even be redeployed yet if June is so far away. We’ll have to wait and see for sure unless one of us is willing to go back through high school again,” the white haired girl explained.

“Wait, it's only April here. Meaning… Susan guess who gets to go to school while we’re here!” Sydney grinned.

Susan look to her sister in horror.

“She's right Sue. You're the only one of us still in high school, it has to be you,” Annabeth told the fearful brunette.


	3. High School Never Ends (Bowling For Soup)

_**Four years, you think for sure** _   
_**That's all you've have to endure** _   
_**All the total dicks, all the stuck-up chicks** _   
_**So superficial, so immature** _

_**And then when you graduate** _   
_**You take a look around and you say, "Hey, wait!"** _   
_**This is the same as where I just came from** _   
_**I thought it was over, oh, that's just great** _

 

Susan groaned as she stood outside Tranquility High. Sydney, having already graduated in their world despite being only 18, had dropped her off and left before Susan could try to climb back in the Impala.

The girls had quickly learned that everyone but Susan had at least one job, Sydney still being Sydney had four so Susan didn't have to work, and similar vehicles to those they had been in the crash with were parked in the driveway of the house they owned together.

It was like everything they needed to know about themselves had been laid out for them as if to ensure their transition into this new world as smooth as possible.

It did however leave the seventeen year old brunette dreading going back to high school when she had just finished her junior year less than a week prior in her own world.

“It's only for two months then you're back on summer break,” she told herself before she took a deep breath and finally walked into the building.

A teacher showed her to the office where she was given a schedule that Prudence had somehow gotten to match Sam Witwicky’s perfectly. Though Susan was pretty sure it was achieved by the nearly silent woman breaking into the school in the dead of night and hacking into the main computer. She still refused to ask if she was correct or not even after the two weeks during which they had taken to get settled and then actually enrolled her and the following two weeks after that when they were “moving”.

A month in this world and they were still at a loss for where they were and what they were suppose to be doing here. It got to Susan the most seeing as she was usually left at home while the others worked. School was going to be a huge change from that.

She sighed as she pushed open the door to her first class. The introductions were a blur. No one listened anyway. She was sat beside Sam and in front of his best friend Miles.

“Welcome to Tranquility. I'm Sam Witwicky and this is my best friend Miles Lancaster,” Sam smiled at her.

Susan gave them both a little wave in place of the smile she couldn't conjure up.

“Hey what's wrong?” Sam asked as he moved his chair a little closer so he could talk to her.

“It's nothing really. I'm left home alone most days so school is a really big change for me,” Susan shrugged.

“Don't you at least eat meals with your family?” Miles questioned as he leaned forward.

“Breakfast is only Miko, Nadia, Claire, Lynelle, and me because my older sister, Annabeth and Prue are already off to work before that. Lunch is always leftovers by myself. And dinner is always eaten without my sister, who I now only see on the weekends when she only works two jobs instead of four,” The brunette female explained, “Sydney’s is my only family here by the way. Mom and dad don't care about her so I ran off to come live with her.”

No one spoke for a minute or two as the two guys looked at each other, shocked and unsure of what to do.

“Well, Susan, now you've got two new friends that are free to hang out all the time,” Sam grinned as he placed a reassuring hand on Susan’s shoulder.

Susan smiled despite the bore of the lesson.

 

* * *

 

Lunch always came fast. Faster than Susan ever remembered it coming back in her world. But maybe that was because Sam kept her days exciting. She no longer dreaded school with her new friend.

In fact, they were closer than Sam and Miles were at times.

It made the following month and a half fly by in Susan’s eyes.

The other girls however had no such luck.

They worked around the clock either at their jobs or doing research on the world they now called home.

Annabeth was stressed almost to the point of breaking as she poured herself into research.

When Miko wasn't working she was cooking and watching the news for any clues as to where they were.  
  
Sydney was rarely home and when she was it was only to sleep in an actual bed, five hours of she was lucky that night.

Lynelle had drove all over the state with no farther results except wasted gas.

Claire trained around the clock only completely stopping for work and sleep.

Nadia always had her headphones on so she could concentrate, reading through things she had pulled off the internet.

Prue pulled extra hours at her office trying to keep ahead of newspapers and magazines before they were published.

In short, Susan was the only one not in hell.


	4. We Are (Ana Johnsson)

_**What about the world today** _   
_**What about the place that we call home** _   
_**We’ve never been so many** _   
_**And we've never been so alone** _

_**You keep watching from your picket fence** _   
_**You keep talking but it makes no sense** _   
_**You say we're not responsible** _   
_**But we are, we are** _   
_**You wash your hands and come out clean** _   
_**Fail to recognize the enemies within** _   
_**You say we're not responsible** _   
_**But we are, we are, we are, we are** _

 

  
Sydney sighed as she leaned against the counter.

It was a Saturday, still two weeks before when they had estimated the Autobots would arrive. She was working at the local ice skating rink today. There was only one birthday party scheduled for the day and as far as she knew, it wasn't hers to handle. So instead she sat there bored out of her mind.

“Excuse me, miss?” Someone asked, “The employee that’s suppose to be running my daughter’s birthday party isn’t here so they told me to come over to you.”

Sydney looked up and her jaw nearly dropped. Standing before her was William Lennox, though he was slightly younger than she recalled. A ways behind him stood a very angry looking Sarah Lennox with three preteens. The blonde girl ran up and hugged Lennox’s arm.

“Daddy? Mom wants to know what’s taking so long? But don’t worry, I know you scheduled this and that it’s not your fault the lady’s sick,” she told him sweetly.

“Thank-you, Annabelle. So can-“

“Mr. Lennox, if you could please bring the other girls over, I’ll start getting them skated. Annabelle why don’t you go first,” Sydney interrupted as she swung part of counter open so the girl could come inside.

The girl grinned before she slipped inside and followed Sydney.

Lennox stood there dumbfound, “How do you know our names?” He sighed before he walked over to tell the others.

“So, how old are you today, Annabelle?” Sydney asked as she grabbed the size the girl had stated on the way in.

“I turn fourteen in two weeks. My dad’s in the military though and he’s getting deployed next week. Mom’s not happy about it so he arranged to fly us all out here for a few days. Tomorrow we go to Disney,” Annabelle explained as she got up on the counter.

“That’s a really expensive birthday. Don’t you think?”

“I don’t want all this, I only wanted the skating rink but he’s trying to prove to mom that he’s committed to us. She wants to take me and leave him.”

Sydney paused.

She had heard this story before, Annabeth had been through this. The divorce, mom trying to take her, fighting to stay with her father, not getting to live with him till her mom started abusing her for not winning her gymnastics competitions, and then when she was finally happy she got seriously injured and ended up in a coma for six weeks.

“And who do you wanna live with?” Sydney asked hesitantly.

“My dad. But he’s always on deployment so I’ll be forced to live with mom. Unless dad remarries quickly and the person isn’t always gone that is. Or maybe if I had a godparent who lived with dad. I have to read up on what my options are so I can fight to live with him.” Annabelle replied.

Sydney slipped the skates on the blonde’s feet, “I know you don’t know me, but… I wanna help you stay with your dad. Tell you what, I admit haven’t skated in a while but I’m a nationally ranked figure skater. What if I put a little something together that we could say was from your dad. Do you think your mom might soften a bit after that?”

“Maybe. It would have to be really special and original though,” Annabelle sighed.

“I can handle that. I’ll let your dad know so he’s not clueless,” Sydney smiled as she finished lacing up the skates, “How do the feel?”

“Tight in the ankle. But that’s for support isn’t it?”

“Yep,” Sydney nodded.

“What’s your name?” Annabelle asked as Sydney helped her off the counter.

“Sydney Blake. Take a few steps for me so I can make sure that’s the right size.”

Annabelle started to walk forward, slowly and a bit shaky but forward and upright nonetheless.

“Sydney, why do you wanna help me? Did you go through this as a kid?”

Sydney stopped walking along side the girl.

“Uh, no. A close friend of mine did though. I however was not as lucky, after my little sister was born my parents didn’t want me anymore,” her voice was low, just above a whisper as memories flashed through her mind.

“What do you mean?” Annabelle asked as she turned to face the older woman.

“I’m almost three years older than my sister Susan and after she was born things took a drastic change in our house. It started as my parents occasionally forgot to do something for me or pick me up from somewhere. Little things that were easy mistakes with a newborn in the house. But by the time I was six, it was like I never even existed. So I taught myself how to cook, clean, do laundry, finish my homework without help, everything a parent is suppose to do for their kid. I took random jobs around the neighborhood so I could buy myself food, clothes, and school supplies. Then just before I turned twelve I landed a job at a local diner, I only washing dishes and got paid under the table but it was a huge improvement from my usual income. On the day of my twelfth birthday my parents looked at me and told me they thought I would’ve gotten the message by that point and kicked me out. After that I slept in the diner after I locked the place up until one of the guys came in early one day and found me. He was only sixteen so he couldn’t take me in but he helped me find a few more jobs and made sure I had everything I needed. My parents had told Susan I had ran away because I didn’t love them and showed up constantly in my life just to torture me. So on my sixteenth birthday I repaid the favor, I knocked on their door and told them I was leaving the state to finally escape their cruelty completely. A year later Susan showed up on my doorstep not knowing how to do anything for herself. I’m still doing everything for her to this day,” Sydney explained.

She knew the story was lengthy and probably not the best thing to tell Annabelle at this point but she needed Annabelle to trust her if she was gonna be able to help the poor girl.

Annabelle ran over as best she could and bear hugged Sydney, “Don’t cry, Sydney. That’s all over now. Don’t let them keep taking from you after all this time. And just think, helping Susan do much will just ensure that you’ll be a better mom than your’s ever was.”

Sydney hadn’t realized she was crying till Annabelle has said something. The brunette quickly wiped her tears away in silent disgust.

“I’m fine now, Annabelle, life has decided to give me a second chance in a new place with friends of my own,” Sydney smiled as she returned the girl’s hug.

She pulled away soon after, “Now let’s get your friends skated so you can get to your birthday party.”

Annabelle smiled before she headed off to find said friends.

➖➖➖

After a session of skating Sydney made sure the party was all set with food and presents before she disappeared to set up her music in the booth. She was glad she had managed to bribe the dj to play the song for her on cue, only after she explained the situation and gave him $50 bucks that was, it would all be worth it in the end though.

The brunette felt a little nostalgic as she laced up her skates for the first time in what seemed like forever. The ice had been zambonied for her so she could easily accomplish what she and Lennox had agreed on in private.

Carefully making her way to the edge of the rink she paused as she thought over the pattern once more in her head. She only had one shot to get this perfect, for Lennox and Annabelle’s sake.

She took a deep breath and stepped out onto the ice. It was as if it was her very first competition all over again.

➖➖➖

A sharp whistle rang out through the ice skating rink.

The party goers all turned from the final present, a card that read Follow the whistle. -Love Dad.

Annabelle was the first to jump up and run from the room.

Lennox stood at the edge of the overlook looking down at the ice with immense gratitude. Out on the ice stood Sydney with her arms in the air to gesture to what she had drawn in the clean ice.

Happy Birthday Love Dad was spelt out in fancy cursive writing and ended at Sydney’s skates.

“Dad…?” Annabelle asked hesitantly.

“Happy birthday sweetheart,” Lennox smiled over at his daughter as he motioned for her to come over.

When everyone was standing by the railing Lennox gave a hand signal high in the air. Sydney nodded and pointed towards the dj booth before she took a starting pose.

The music, Imagine, the Avril Lavigne version, rang throughout the rink before Sydney started to move.

Annabelle and her friends watched in awe as the brunette skated around the rink to the music. About a minute into the routine one of the girls gasped as Sydney went into her first jump and nearly didn’t land it. Sydney took a deep breath and straightened herself out as she skated on.

She needed to land the next jump perfectly to make up for the first one.

Annabelle closed her eyes as Sydney jumped up into a spin. Only when the sound of skate meeting ice met her ears she dared look. Her new friend was wearing a huge smile as she had landed strong and stable this time, skating on with ease.

Trick after trick, jump after jump all eyes were on Sydney, even those who weren’t apart of the party, all except Sarah that was.

When she finally came to a stop and the music faded out Sydney was out of breath and sweating.

Cheers and applause came from all around her.

Sydney panted as she looked around to everyone around the rink, lights flashing occasionally from camera flashes and the broken light above the concession stand.

One last turn and she was skating to the edge of the rink where Annabeth and her friends met her.

“That was amazing!”

“How can you do all that?”

“How long have you been skating for?”

“Was that set up before we got here?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa girls. Calm down for a minute so I can answer,” Sydney laughed.

The girls settled down and grinned at the older girl as Lennox and Sarah approached unnoticed.

“Did you miss it?” Annabeth asked quietly.

“More than I ever thought I would. Thank-you but it was just an old routine of mine, one of my first performances actually. Years and years of daily practice and dedication. Eight years now. And yes, Will and I grew up near each other and he remembered that I had moved out here years ago and that I competed professionally so he gave me a call a few days ago,” Sydney responded making sure only the last answer was a lie.

Sarah crossed her arms and glared over at Lennox. Sydney noticed and her smile slowly faded as worry washed over her.

“I looked you up Sydney. No Sydney Blake has ever competed nationally in figure skating,” one of the girls commented.

“Try Virginia Winchester.”

The girl typed away at her phone.

“She’s telling the truth,” the girl admitted after a few minutes of reading.

“Is that a false name?” Annabeth asked.

“No. It’s my birth name. Sydney Blake is a false name I took up at age twelve when I started taking real job, it was to help me hide from my parents. I had to give my real name while competing because they run background checks and stuff,” Sydney explained quietly.

Annabeth hugged Sydney so she could whisper in her ear, “For the record, I think Virginia Winchester is a lot prettier than Sydney Blake.”

Sydney smiled until she looked up and met Sarah’s cold glare.

“I’m so sorry, Annabeth.”

“Why?” the blonde girl asked her.

Sydney looked away from Sarah and over to Lennox, “Because I think I may be the reason why you have to go through all of this.”


	5. Circles (Pierce The Veil)

_**You took my hand and then we both started running** _   
_**Both started running, there's no place to go** _   
_**Another bullet and we both started running** _   
_**Both started running too** _   
_**Whoa oh whoa oh** _   
_**Save yourself, don't ever look back** _   
_**Whoa oh** _   
_**Nowhere to go and so we both spin around in circles (circles)** _   
_**Whoa-oh-oh whoa** _

 

Sydney sighed as she placed the duffle bag in the backseat of the Impala.

Behind her Lennox was saying goodbye to Sarah and Annabelle while she loaded the car for him.

“Come back safely, daddy,” Annabelle said before she let go of her father.

“I always do sweetheart,” Lennox smiled.

“I hope you realize just how much I don’t like that you’re here,” Sarah said as she walked over to Sydney.

“I’m just giving him a ride seeing as you have somewhere else to be today, Sarah. And as I’ve already stated, I’m 19, I’m more likely to hang out with Annabelle than I am your 34 year old husband, even if he’s an old friend of mine,” Sydney responded.

Sarah huffed before she stormed away.

“What was that all about?” Lennox asked as he walked up.

“Your wife hates me with a burning passion,” Sydney sighed, “Let’s hit the road.”

Sydney went to climb into the Impala when a gunshot rang out.

“Everybody down!” she yelled as she dropped to the ground.

“You made me miss, girly,” a raspy, metallic voice stated.

“Oh go blow it out your exhaust pipe!” Sydney spat as she stood and snatched her gauntlets out of the Impala.

“Sydney stay down!” Lennox ordered.

Sydney ignored him and stood to face the shooter.

The man standing there surprised the brunette, she expected to see Frenzy based on the voice.

Nevertheless Sydney activated her gauntlets and charged the man.

Annabelle yelled out from the porch as Sydney dodged and punched the guy in the face. Realising his gun was useless, the attacker ditched the weapon and started attempting to fight the girl bare fisted. Sydney scoffed at his feudal attempts to land a punch.

“I’ve fought guys half your size with twice the ability to fight someone as you. You’re pathetic,” she told him through her teeth before she landed a solid punch to the man’s jaw.

The man gave an inhuman growl before he swung up and managed to land a solid uppercut to the much smaller female.

“Virginia!” Annabelle screamed as she tried to run to her friend only for her mother to hold her back.

Sydney went flying back from the man and landed hard enough to cause an indent in the ground.

“Well I guess that answers the question as to whether you’re human or not,” she groaned as Lennox ran over to her.

With some distance between them the man pulled out his gun again and fired at the two on the ground.

Sydney leapt up and dragged Lennox with her as she sprinted away from the bullet’s projectile path. More shots rang out as they ran away from the house to draw fire from Annabelle and Sarah.

“Get down and stay there!” Sydney ordered as she shoved Lennox behind a rather large tree in the front yard.

Lennox went to argue but the brunette was already gone.

Sydney charged the man again, using her gauntlets to block the bullets. She planted her feet as she came to a sudden stop before him and used her momentum to throw herself into a right hook. The gauntlet made contact with him and a small explosion occurred, as if straight out of the RWBY anime.

The man was unconscious on the ground in an instant.

“Help me put him in the trunk,” she called out to Lennox as she started to pick up the man.

“In the trunk?” he questioned as he ran over.

“You wanna leave him here with your wife and child?”

“Nope.”

The two managed to get the unconscious man into the trunk before Syndey slammed it closed.

“You should be safe now,” Sydney told Sarah and Annabelle as she walked around the Impala.

She climbed into the driver’s seat and Lennox quickly followed into the passenger.

➖➖➖

Sydney came to a stop and put the Impala in park before the pair climbed out.

“I’ll see you in a few months when you pick me up alright?” Lennox said as he made sure he had everything.

“Actually, I’ll see you in a few weeks. Sector Seven. Don’t you or Epps die before that,” Sydney told him.

“What do you-”

“Just trust me. I’ll see you soon, Lennox,” Sydney cut him off as she walked back around to the driver’s side.

“See you then I guess,” Lennox waved in confusion as she climbed in.

Sydney waved out the window as she drove off.

“Who was that?” Epps asked as he walked up.

“A friend. You’ll get to meet her soon apparently,” Lennox responded as he turned and headed in the opposite direction the Impala had just gone.

“What do you mean?” Epps asked.

“I don’t know. She’s a little weird actually. I met her at Annabelle’s birthday party last week and Annabelle really took to her after she helped me out with a surprise at the party. Mean, it’s like she’s psychic or something, always knows what’s about to happen and exactly when it will. She claims that she’ll see me again in a few weeks at some Sector Seven place with you,” Lennox explained.

Epps raised an eyebrow at his friend, “She sounds kinda creepy.”

“She’s completely harmless and Annabelle loves her to pieces, like she’s the older sister she never had or something. The only thing that worries me is that Sydney admitted that she’s already closer with Anna that she is her own sister.”

“Whoa, that’s odd.”

“Nah, she had a rough childhood according to Annabelle. She‘s only known her sister for about a year now but there’s no time to get to know her or hangout with her because Sydney works four jobs so Susan doesn’t have to work. And good thing they live with friends or nothing would get done in the house seeing as Susan was never taught how to do anything for herself,” Lennox informed Epps.

Epps stopped and looked back at the dust the Impala was kicking up in the distance.

“Poor girl.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Now this would be the part of the song**

**Where they drop the needle on and hell breaks loose**

**Try to restrain us, you can't contain us**

**We still gonna make it stick no matter what we do**

**Everywhere we go, it seems we looking**

**For any excuse to just cut loose**

 

**So this would be the part of the song**

**Where they drop the needle on and hell breaks loose**

 

Susan groaned as her fellow students chattered around her.

“Okay, mister Witwicky, you're up,” Mr. Hosney called over the noise.

Family genealogy reports.

No one had been overly happy with the assignment and it hadn’t helped that Susan had gotten a special pass via “unknown” sources to not do the project.

Sam stood from his seat beside Susan and walked to the front of the room with his bag.

“Sorry, I got a lot of stuff,” Sam apologized as he dumped out the stuff he had in his bag for his project.

“Watch this,” Susan heard Trent say from behind her.

“Oh no…” Susan breathed as she turned around to say something.

“Oh-kay. For my family genea- ah-”

A spitball hit Sam in the next causing the students around Susan to laugh, even Miles.

“Who did- who did that?” Mr. Hosney demanded as he stood up.

Trent looked around innocently while Susan glared straight at him. He caught her eye and he smirked at her before he threw her a wink, right in front of his girlfriend Mikaela.

“People! Responsibility,” Mr. Hosney added when he couldn’t find the culprit.

Susan scoffed in disgust as she turned back to her best friend.

“Okay. Um,” Sam mumbled as Mr. Hosney sat and gestured for him to start.

The students chortled as Sam continued.

“So, for my family genealogy report, I decided to do it on my great-great-grandfather, who was a famous man, Captain Archibald Witwicky. Very famous explorer. In fact, he was one of the first... to explore... the Arctic Circle, which is a big deal. In 1897, he took forty one brave sailors straight into the Arctic Shelf. So that's the story, right? And here we have some of the basic instruments and tools used by nineteenth century seamen.”

Everyone around Susan laughed again, she elbowed Miles to get him to shut up. Susan then realized what Sam was about to say, despite her warnings, and started to discreetly waving her hands around to try and get him to stop.

“This here is the quadrant, which you can get for eighty bucks. It's all for sale, by the way. Like the, uh, the sextant here,” Sam continued.

More laughing.

“Fifty dollars for this, which is a bargain. These are pretty cool. These are my grandfather's glasses. I haven't quite gotten them appraised yet, but they've seen many cool things.”

Susan groaned as she put her head on her desk in defeat.

“Are you going to sell me his liver? Mr. Witwicky, this isn't show and sell. It's the eleventh grade. I don't think your grandfather would be particularly proud of what you're doing,”  Mr. Hosney interrupted.

“I know. I'm sorry. I just, you know, this is all going towards my car fund. You can tell your folks. It's on eBay. I take PayPal. Cold hard cash works, too,” Sam tried to explain.

More laughing.

“And the compass makes a- a great gift for Columbus Day.”

“Sam!” Susan exclaimed.

He looked over at her desperate look and sighed.

“Sorry, Susie. Um, unfortunately, my great-great-grandfather, the genius that he was, wound up going blind and crazy in a psycho ward, drawing these strange symbols and babbling on about some, uh, giant ice man that he thought he'd discovered.”

The bell rang and everyone rushed out of the room. Susan sat there glaring, Sam was only allowed to call her Susie when it was just him and her, them and Miles, or them and either of their families.

“Okay. Might be a pop quiz tomorrow. Might not. Sleep in fear tonight,” Mr. Hosney said as they walked out.

“Today is a Friday, Mr. Hosney,” Susan informed the teacher as she stood and gathered her things.

“But they will still sleep in fear until they awake tomorrow and realize it’s thankfully a Saturday, Miss. Vincent,” he responded, “Sam?”

Sam stopped trying to sell his stuff and looked up, “Yeah. Sorry, sorry. Okay. Pretty good, right?” he asked as he ran over.

Susan face palmed as she leaned back against her desk.

“Uh... I'd say a solid B-minus.”

Susan knew the man was being generous with the B- only because she had managed to get Sam back on track so he was able to complete his report.

“A B-minus?” Sam questioned in disbelief.

“You were hawking your great-grandfather's crap in my classroom. And you would’ve continued had Miss. Vincent not spoken up and stopped you because you certainly weren’t listening to me or your other classmates,” the teacher told him.

San started to argue back, “No, kids enjoy- Look, can you do me a favor?”

“What?”

“Can you look out the window for a second? You see my father? He's the guy in the green car.”

“Nh. Yeah.”

“Okay, I wanna tell you about a dream. A boy's dream. And a man's promise to that boy. He looked at me in the eye. He said, "Son, I'm gonna buy you a car. But I want you to bring me two thousand dollars, and three As." Okay? I got the two thousand dollars and I got two As. Okay? Here's the dream. Your B-minus. Poof. Dream gone. Kaput. Sir, just ask yourself, what would Jesus do?”

  
➖➖➖

 

““What would Jesus do?” Sam what were you thinking? You could’ve gotten yourself an even worse grade with that argument of yours!” Susan exclaimed as she stormed towards Ron Witwicky’s car.

“But I didn’t, Susie,” Sam responded as he ran to keep up with the much shorter girl’s furious pace.

Susan stopped and spun around abruptly at the nickname, “And what did I tell you about calling me that?”

“I know, I know, I know, and I’m sorry. At the time I thought it might help calm you down,” Sam tried to defend himself as he nearly ran into the girl.

“Having a lover’s quarrel are we,  _ Susie _ ?” Trent taunted as he and his lackeys walked by.

“Obviously you were wrong!” She seethed at Sam before she spun on her heels and marched the rest of the way to the car.

“So?” Ron questioned as the two teens climbed in the car.

“A-minus. It's an A, though,” Sam told him quickly, hoping it would count so Susan wouldn’t be mad at him anymore.

“Wait, wait, wait. I can't see. It's an A.”

“So I'm good?” Sam asked hopefully.

“You're good,” Ron nodded as he drove away from the school.

Susan slipped on a pair of headphones to drown out the rest of the conversation.

“Say… what did you do to piss her off this time?” Ron asked Sam quietly.

“Called her Susie in class and then Trent walked by and asked if we were having a “lover’s quarrel” before calling her Susie,” Sam sighed as he slumped in his seat and glanced back at his female friend.

“Oh boy,” Ron commented.

 

 

➖➖➖

 

“I got a little surprise for you, son,” Ron said as he pulled into a Porsche car dealership.

Sam was confused, “What kind of s-” He started as he looked up.

“Yeah, a little surprise,” Ron nodded.

“No. No, no, no, no! Dad! Oh, you gotta be kidding me,” Sam all but yelled.

Susan slipped off her headphones and laughed.

“Yeah. I am. You're not getting a Porsche,” Ron laughed along with Susan.

Sam’s grin fell, “You think that's funny?”

“Yeah, I think it's funny.”

“What's wrong with you?”

“You think I'd really get you a Porsche? For your first car?”

“I don't want to talk to you for the rest of this whole thing. Or you,” Sam glared back at Susan who was trying to stifle her laughter.

“Yeah, sure thing, Sammy,” Susan replied as she leaned forward against the front seat.

“Oh, come on. It's just a practical joke,” Ron laughed.

‘It's not a funny joke,” Sam argued.

Ron parked the car and he and Sam climbed out before Sam helped Susan jump out of the back.

His face fell further as he turned and saw the place his father had brought them.

“Here? No, no, no, what is this? You said- you said half a car, not half a piece of crap, dad,” he said as they walked towards the office.

Susan took note that Bumblebee was nowhere to be seen yet.

“When I was your age, I'd have been happy with four wheels and an engine,” Ron told him.

“Okay, let me explain something to you. Okay? You ever see 40-Year-Old Virgin?” Sam asked.

“I'm outta here!” Someone yelled as he pushed past Susan.

She fell to the ground as the conversation between Sam and Ron continued.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there,” the guy apologized as he helped Susan up.

“It’s fine. I wasn’t paying attention anyway,” Susan smiled as she glanced over to where a certain Camaro was now parked.

“You like that car?”

“Oh! Uh… yeah. I’m hoping my friend over there will get that Camaro for his first car. But I think it’s too expensive for what his dad wants to pay,” Susan sighed as she turned back to the guy.

He had red hair, green eyes, and a light dusting of freckles across his nose.

“Well, I haven’t clocked out yet. Maybe I can help you out with that. I’m Wally Irving by the way,” the guy told her as he held out his hand.

Susan shook the outstretched hand, “Susan Vincent.”

“Hey Sue! Come check this car out!” Sam called over to her.

He was standing beside Bumblebee.

“Let’s go get your friend that car, shall we?” Wally offered.

“That would be amazing of you,” Susan told him as they walked over to Sam, Ron, and Bobby.

“How much?” Ron was asking.

“Well, considering the semi-classic nature of the vehicle, with the slick wheels and the custom paint job…” Bobby started.

“Here it comes,” Susan and Wally said as the same time.

They eyed each other in confusion.

“Bobby always over prices cars. But why did you-“

“Sam’s Dad is kinda cheap,” Susan said quickly.

“Well, this is your first car. I wouldn't expect you to understand,” Bobby was telling Sam.

He started to say a price but Wally cut him off, “Four grand.”

“Wallace Irving what are you doing?” Bobby demanded.

“The kid’s right. It’s faded and the car obviously needs work. Four thousand is fair for this Camaro. Custom paint or not,” Wally argued.

“Aren’t you supposed to be off work now?” Bobby questioned.

“Well I accidentally bumped into Miss. Vincent on my way to go clock out and she asked me to help her friend here find a good first car. I agreed as a way to apologize to her for knocking her to the ground,” Wally told his boss, “I got this one Bobby. Why don’t you go say hello to your momma?”

“Punk ass kid,” Bobby complained as he walked away.

“Now, back to the car. How does four thousand sound?” Wally asked as he turned back to Ron.

“Perfect. We’ll take it,” Ron nodded.

“Yes!” Susan cheered.

“It’s my car, Sue. Why are you so happy?” Sam asked from inside the cab.

Susan leaned in the driver’s side window, “Let’s be honest, you would’ve never gotten this car for such a low price unless someone blew out the windows on every other car in this lot. Not only did I get you the car for the right price but I also made a new friend today.”

Ron laughed from behind her as Sam glared at her.

All three of them jumped a bit when Susan’s phone suddenly rang.

“Hey, Syd. What’s up?” Susan asked as she answered the device.

“Could you possibly stay with Sam for the weekend?” Sydney responded.

“Probably. Why though?” Susan asked as she stood up straight.

“Uh… the house is on fire.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Now this would be the part of the song**

**Where they drop the needle on and hell breaks loose**

**Try to restrain us, you can't contain us**

**We still gonna make it stick no matter what we do**

**Everywhere we go, it seems we looking**

**For any excuse to just cut loose**

 

**So this would be the part of the song**

**Where they drop the needle on and hell breaks loose**

 

Susan groaned as her fellow students chattered around her.

 

“Okay, mister Witwicky, you're up,” Mr. Hosney called over the noise.

 

Family genealogy reports.

 

No one had been overly happy with the assignment and it hadn’t helped that Susan had gotten a special pass via “unknown” sources to not do the project.

 

Sam stood from his seat beside Susan and walked to the front of the room with his bag.

 

“Sorry, I got a lot of stuff,” Sam apologized as he dumped out the stuff he had in his bag for his project.

 

“Watch this,” Susan heard Trent say from behind her.

 

“Oh no…” Susan breathed as she turned around to say something.

 

“Oh-kay. For my family genea- ah-”

 

A spitball hit Sam in the next causing the students around Susan to laugh, even Miles.

 

“Who did- who did that?” Mr. Hosney demanded as he stood up.

 

Trent looked around innocently while Susan glared straight at him. He caught her eye and he smirked at her before he threw her a wink, right in front of his girlfriend Mikaela.

 

“People! Responsibility,” Mr. Hosney added when he couldn’t find the culprit.

 

Susan scoffed in disgust as she turned back to her best friend.

 

“Okay. Um,” Sam mumbled as Mr. Hosney sat and gestured for him to start.

 

The students chortled as Sam continued.

 

“So, for my family genealogy report, I decided to do it on my great-great-grandfather, who was a famous man, Captain Archibald Witwicky. Very famous explorer. In fact, he was one of the first... to explore... the Arctic Circle, which is a big deal. In 1897, he took forty one brave sailors straight into the Arctic Shelf. So that's the story, right? And here we have some of the basic instruments and tools used by nineteenth century seamen.”

 

Everyone around Susan laughed again, she elbowed Miles to get him to shut up. Susan then realized what Sam was about to say, despite her warnings, and started to discreetly waving her hands around to try and get him to stop.

 

“This here is the quadrant, which you can get for eighty bucks. It's all for sale, by the way. Like the, uh, the sextant here,” Sam continued.

 

More laughing.

 

“Fifty dollars for this, which is a bargain. These are pretty cool. These are my grandfather's glasses. I haven't quite gotten them appraised yet, but they've seen many cool things.”

 

Susan groaned as she put her head on her desk in defeat.

 

“Are you going to sell me his liver? Mr. Witwicky, this isn't show and sell. It's the eleventh grade. I don't think your grandfather would be particularly proud of what you're doing,”  Mr. Hosney interrupted.

 

“I know. I'm sorry. I just, you know, this is all going towards my car fund. You can tell your folks. It's on eBay. I take PayPal. Cold hard cash works, too,” Sam tried to explain.

 

More laughing.

 

“And the compass makes a- a great gift for Columbus Day.”

 

“Sam!” Susan exclaimed.

 

He looked over at her desperate look and sighed.

 

“Sorry, Susie. Um, unfortunately, my great-great-grandfather, the genius that he was, wound up going blind and crazy in a psycho ward, drawing these strange symbols and babbling on about some, uh, giant ice man that he thought he'd discovered.”

 

The bell rang and everyone rushed out of the room. Susan sat there glaring, Sam was only allowed to call her Susie when it was just him and her, them and Miles, or them and either of their families.

 

“Okay. Might be a pop quiz tomorrow. Might not. Sleep in fear tonight,” Mr. Hosney said as they walked out.

 

“Today is a Friday, Mr. Hosney,” Susan informed the teacher as she stood and gathered her things.

 

“But they will still sleep in fear until they awake tomorrow and realize it’s thankfully a Saturday, Miss. Vincent,” he responded, “Sam?”

 

Sam stopped trying to sell his stuff and looked up, “Yeah. Sorry, sorry. Okay. Pretty good, right?” he asked as he ran over.

 

Susan face palmed as she leaned back against her desk.

 

“Uh... I'd say a solid B-minus.”

 

Susan knew the man was being generous with the B- only because she had managed to get Sam back on track so he was able to complete his report.

 

“A B-minus?” Sam questioned in disbelief.

 

“You were hawking your great-grandfather's crap in my classroom. And you would’ve continued had Miss. Vincent not spoken up and stopped you because you certainly weren’t listening to me or your other classmates,” the teacher told him.

 

San started to argue back, “No, kids enjoy- Look, can you do me a favor?”

 

“What?”

 

“Can you look out the window for a second? You see my father? He's the guy in the green car.”

 

“Nh. Yeah.”

 

“Okay, I wanna tell you about a dream. A boy's dream. And a man's promise to that boy. He looked at me in the eye. He said, "Son, I'm gonna buy you a car. But I want you to bring me two thousand dollars, and three As." Okay? I got the two thousand dollars and I got two As. Okay? Here's the dream. Your B-minus. Poof. Dream gone. Kaput. Sir, just ask yourself, what would Jesus do?”

  
➖➖➖

 

““What would Jesus do?” Sam what were you thinking? You could’ve gotten yourself an even worse grade with that argument of yours!” Susan exclaimed as she stormed towards Ron Witwicky’s car.

 

“But I didn’t, Susie,” Sam responded as he ran to keep up with the much shorter girl’s furious pace.

 

Susan stopped and spun around abruptly at the nickname, “And what did I tell you about calling me that?”

 

“I know, I know, I know, and I’m sorry. At the time I thought it might help calm you down,” Sam tried to defend himself as he nearly ran into the girl.

 

“Having a lover’s quarrel are we,  _ Susie _ ?” Trent taunted as he and his lackeys walked by.

 

“Obviously you were wrong!” She seethed at Sam before she spun on her heels and marched the rest of the way to the car.

 

“So?” Ron questioned as the two teens climbed in the car.

 

“A-minus. It's an A, though,” Sam told him quickly, hoping it would count so Susan wouldn’t be mad at him anymore.

 

“Wait, wait, wait. I can't see. It's an A.”

 

“So I'm good?” Sam asked hopefully.

 

“You're good,” Ron nodded as he drove away from the school.

 

Susan slipped on a pair of headphones to drown out the rest of the conversation.

 

“Say… what did you do to piss her off this time?” Ron asked Sam quietly.

 

“Called her Susie in class and then Trent walked by and asked if we were having a “lover’s quarrel” before calling her Susie,” Sam sighed as he slumped in his seat and glanced back at his female friend.

 

“Oh boy,” Ron commented.

 

 

➖➖➖

 

“I got a little surprise for you, son,” Ron said as he pulled into a Porsche car dealership.

 

Sam was confused, “What kind of s-” He started as he looked up.

 

“Yeah, a little surprise,” Ron nodded.

 

“No. No, no, no, no! Dad! Oh, you gotta be kidding me,” Sam all but yelled.

 

Susan slipped off her headphones and laughed.

 

“Yeah. I am. You're not getting a Porsche,” Ron laughed along with Susan.

 

Sam’s grin fell, “You think that's funny?”

 

“Yeah, I think it's funny.”

 

“What's wrong with you?”

 

“You think I'd really get you a Porsche? For your first car?”

 

“I don't want to talk to you for the rest of this whole thing. Or you,” Sam glared back at Susan who was trying to stifle her laughter.

 

“Yeah, sure thing, Sammy,” Susan replied as she leaned forward against the front seat.

 

“Oh, come on. It's just a practical joke,” Ron laughed.

 

‘It's not a funny joke,” Sam argued.

 

Ron parked the car and he and Sam climbed out before Sam helped Susan jump out of the back.

 

His face fell further as he turned and saw the place his father had brought them.

 

“Here? No, no, no, what is this? You said- you said half a car, not half a piece of crap, dad,” he said as they walked towards the office.

 

Susan took note that Bumblebee was nowhere to be seen yet.

 

“When I was your age, I'd have been happy with four wheels and an engine,” Ron told him.

 

“Okay, let me explain something to you. Okay? You ever see 40-Year-Old Virgin?” Sam asked.

 

“I'm outta here!” Someone yelled as he pushed past Susan.

 

She fell to the ground as the conversation between Sam and Ron continued.

 

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there,” the guy apologized as he helped Susan up.

 

“It’s fine. I wasn’t paying attention anyway,” Susan smiled as she glanced over to where a certain Camaro was now parked.

 

“You like that car?”

 

“Oh! Uh… yeah. I’m hoping my friend over there will get that Camaro for his first car. But I think it’s too expensive for what his dad wants to pay,” Susan sighed as she turned back to the guy.

 

He had red hair, green eyes, and a light dusting of freckles across his nose.

 

“Well, I haven’t clocked out yet. Maybe I can help you out with that. I’m Wally Irving by the way,” the guy told her as he held out his hand.

 

Susan shook the outstretched hand, “Susan Vincent.”

 

“Hey Sue! Come check this car out!” Sam called over to her.

 

He was standing beside Bumblebee.

 

“Let’s go get your friend that car, shall we?” Wally offered.

 

“That would be amazing of you,” Susan told him as they walked over to Sam, Ron, and Bobby.

 

“How much?” Ron was asking.

 

“Well, considering the semi-classic nature of the vehicle, with the slick wheels and the custom paint job…” Bobby started.

 

“Here it comes,” Susan and Wally said as the same time.

 

They eyed each other in confusion.

 

“Bobby always over prices cars. But why did you-“

 

“Sam’s Dad is kinda cheap,” Susan said quickly.

 

“Well, this is your first car. I wouldn't expect you to understand,” Bobby was telling Sam.

 

He started to say a price but Wally cut him off, “Four grand.”

 

“Wallace Irving what are you doing?” Bobby demanded.

 

“The kid’s right. It’s faded and the car obviously needs work. Four thousand is fair for this Camaro. Custom paint or not,” Wally argued.

 

“Aren’t you supposed to be off work now?” Bobby questioned.

 

“Well I accidentally bumped into Miss. Vincent on my way to go clock out and she asked me to help her friend here find a good first car. I agreed as a way to apologize to her for knocking her to the ground,” Wally told his boss, “I got this one Bobby. Why don’t you go say hello to your momma?”

 

“Punk ass kid,” Bobby complained as he walked away.

 

“Now, back to the car. How does four thousand sound?” Wally asked as he turned back to Ron.

“Perfect. We’ll take it,” Ron nodded.

“Yes!” Susan cheered.

“It’s my car, Sue. Why are you so happy?” Sam asked from inside the cab.

Susan leaned in the driver’s side window, “Let’s be honest, you would’ve never gotten this car for such a low price unless someone blew out the windows on every other car in this lot. Not only did I get you the car for the right price but I also made a new friend today.”

Ron laughed from behind her as Sam glared at her.

All three of them jumped a bit when Susan’s phone suddenly rang.

“Hey, Syd. What’s up?” Susan asked as she answered the device.

“Could you possibly stay with Sam for the weekend?” Sydney responded.

“Probably. Why though?” Susan asked as she stood up straight.

“Uh… the house is on fire.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Now this would be the part of the song**

**Where they drop the needle on and hell breaks loose**

**Try to restrain us, you can't contain us**

**We still gonna make it stick no matter what we do**

**Everywhere we go, it seems we looking**

**For any excuse to just cut loose**

 

**So this would be the part of the song**

**Where they drop the needle on and hell breaks loose**

 

Susan groaned as her fellow students chattered around her.

 

“Okay, mister Witwicky, you're up,” Mr. Hosney called over the noise.

 

Family genealogy reports.

 

No one had been overly happy with the assignment and it hadn’t helped that Susan had gotten a special pass via “unknown” sources to not do the project.

 

Sam stood from his seat beside Susan and walked to the front of the room with his bag.

 

“Sorry, I got a lot of stuff,” Sam apologized as he dumped out the stuff he had in his bag for his project.

 

“Watch this,” Susan heard Trent say from behind her.

 

“Oh no…” Susan breathed as she turned around to say something.

 

“Oh-kay. For my family genea- ah-”

 

A spitball hit Sam in the next causing the students around Susan to laugh, even Miles.

 

“Who did- who did that?” Mr. Hosney demanded as he stood up.

 

Trent looked around innocently while Susan glared straight at him. He caught her eye and he smirked at her before he threw her a wink, right in front of his girlfriend Mikaela.

 

“People! Responsibility,” Mr. Hosney added when he couldn’t find the culprit.

 

Susan scoffed in disgust as she turned back to her best friend.

 

“Okay. Um,” Sam mumbled as Mr. Hosney sat and gestured for him to start.

 

The students chortled as Sam continued.

 

“So, for my family genealogy report, I decided to do it on my great-great-grandfather, who was a famous man, Captain Archibald Witwicky. Very famous explorer. In fact, he was one of the first... to explore... the Arctic Circle, which is a big deal. In 1897, he took forty one brave sailors straight into the Arctic Shelf. So that's the story, right? And here we have some of the basic instruments and tools used by nineteenth century seamen.”

 

Everyone around Susan laughed again, she elbowed Miles to get him to shut up. Susan then realized what Sam was about to say, despite her warnings, and started to discreetly waving her hands around to try and get him to stop.

 

“This here is the quadrant, which you can get for eighty bucks. It's all for sale, by the way. Like the, uh, the sextant here,” Sam continued.

 

More laughing.

 

“Fifty dollars for this, which is a bargain. These are pretty cool. These are my grandfather's glasses. I haven't quite gotten them appraised yet, but they've seen many cool things.”

 

Susan groaned as she put her head on her desk in defeat.

 

“Are you going to sell me his liver? Mr. Witwicky, this isn't show and sell. It's the eleventh grade. I don't think your grandfather would be particularly proud of what you're doing,”  Mr. Hosney interrupted.

 

“I know. I'm sorry. I just, you know, this is all going towards my car fund. You can tell your folks. It's on eBay. I take PayPal. Cold hard cash works, too,” Sam tried to explain.

 

More laughing.

 

“And the compass makes a- a great gift for Columbus Day.”

 

“Sam!” Susan exclaimed.

 

He looked over at her desperate look and sighed.

 

“Sorry, Susie. Um, unfortunately, my great-great-grandfather, the genius that he was, wound up going blind and crazy in a psycho ward, drawing these strange symbols and babbling on about some, uh, giant ice man that he thought he'd discovered.”

 

The bell rang and everyone rushed out of the room. Susan sat there glaring, Sam was only allowed to call her Susie when it was just him and her, them and Miles, or them and either of their families.

 

“Okay. Might be a pop quiz tomorrow. Might not. Sleep in fear tonight,” Mr. Hosney said as they walked out.

 

“Today is a Friday, Mr. Hosney,” Susan informed the teacher as she stood and gathered her things.

 

“But they will still sleep in fear until they awake tomorrow and realize it’s thankfully a Saturday, Miss. Vincent,” he responded, “Sam?”

 

Sam stopped trying to sell his stuff and looked up, “Yeah. Sorry, sorry. Okay. Pretty good, right?” he asked as he ran over.

 

Susan face palmed as she leaned back against her desk.

 

“Uh... I'd say a solid B-minus.”

 

Susan knew the man was being generous with the B- only because she had managed to get Sam back on track so he was able to complete his report.

 

“A B-minus?” Sam questioned in disbelief.

 

“You were hawking your great-grandfather's crap in my classroom. And you would’ve continued had Miss. Vincent not spoken up and stopped you because you certainly weren’t listening to me or your other classmates,” the teacher told him.

 

San started to argue back, “No, kids enjoy- Look, can you do me a favor?”

 

“What?”

 

“Can you look out the window for a second? You see my father? He's the guy in the green car.”

 

“Nh. Yeah.”

 

“Okay, I wanna tell you about a dream. A boy's dream. And a man's promise to that boy. He looked at me in the eye. He said, "Son, I'm gonna buy you a car. But I want you to bring me two thousand dollars, and three As." Okay? I got the two thousand dollars and I got two As. Okay? Here's the dream. Your B-minus. Poof. Dream gone. Kaput. Sir, just ask yourself, what would Jesus do?”

  
➖➖➖

 

““What would Jesus do?” Sam what were you thinking? You could’ve gotten yourself an even worse grade with that argument of yours!” Susan exclaimed as she stormed towards Ron Witwicky’s car.

 

“But I didn’t, Susie,” Sam responded as he ran to keep up with the much shorter girl’s furious pace.

 

Susan stopped and spun around abruptly at the nickname, “And what did I tell you about calling me that?”

 

“I know, I know, I know, and I’m sorry. At the time I thought it might help calm you down,” Sam tried to defend himself as he nearly ran into the girl.

 

“Having a lover’s quarrel are we,  _ Susie _ ?” Trent taunted as he and his lackeys walked by.

 

“Obviously you were wrong!” She seethed at Sam before she spun on her heels and marched the rest of the way to the car.

 

“So?” Ron questioned as the two teens climbed in the car.

 

“A-minus. It's an A, though,” Sam told him quickly, hoping it would count so Susan wouldn’t be mad at him anymore.

 

“Wait, wait, wait. I can't see. It's an A.”

 

“So I'm good?” Sam asked hopefully.

 

“You're good,” Ron nodded as he drove away from the school.

 

Susan slipped on a pair of headphones to drown out the rest of the conversation.

 

“Say… what did you do to piss her off this time?” Ron asked Sam quietly.

 

“Called her Susie in class and then Trent walked by and asked if we were having a “lover’s quarrel” before calling her Susie,” Sam sighed as he slumped in his seat and glanced back at his female friend.

 

“Oh boy,” Ron commented.

 

 

➖➖➖

 

“I got a little surprise for you, son,” Ron said as he pulled into a Porsche car dealership.

 

Sam was confused, “What kind of s-” He started as he looked up.

 

“Yeah, a little surprise,” Ron nodded.

 

“No. No, no, no, no! Dad! Oh, you gotta be kidding me,” Sam all but yelled.

 

Susan slipped off her headphones and laughed.

 

“Yeah. I am. You're not getting a Porsche,” Ron laughed along with Susan.

 

Sam’s grin fell, “You think that's funny?”

 

“Yeah, I think it's funny.”

 

“What's wrong with you?”

 

“You think I'd really get you a Porsche? For your first car?”

 

“I don't want to talk to you for the rest of this whole thing. Or you,” Sam glared back at Susan who was trying to stifle her laughter.

 

“Yeah, sure thing, Sammy,” Susan replied as she leaned forward against the front seat.

 

“Oh, come on. It's just a practical joke,” Ron laughed.

 

‘It's not a funny joke,” Sam argued.

 

Ron parked the car and he and Sam climbed out before Sam helped Susan jump out of the back.

 

His face fell further as he turned and saw the place his father had brought them.

 

“Here? No, no, no, what is this? You said- you said half a car, not half a piece of crap, dad,” he said as they walked towards the office.

 

Susan took note that Bumblebee was nowhere to be seen yet.

 

“When I was your age, I'd have been happy with four wheels and an engine,” Ron told him.

 

“Okay, let me explain something to you. Okay? You ever see 40-Year-Old Virgin?” Sam asked.

 

“I'm outta here!” Someone yelled as he pushed past Susan.

 

She fell to the ground as the conversation between Sam and Ron continued.

 

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there,” the guy apologized as he helped Susan up.

 

“It’s fine. I wasn’t paying attention anyway,” Susan smiled as she glanced over to where a certain Camaro was now parked.

 

“You like that car?”

 

“Oh! Uh… yeah. I’m hoping my friend over there will get that Camaro for his first car. But I think it’s too expensive for what his dad wants to pay,” Susan sighed as she turned back to the guy.

 

He had red hair, green eyes, and a light dusting of freckles across his nose.

 

“Well, I haven’t clocked out yet. Maybe I can help you out with that. I’m Wally Irving by the way,” the guy told her as he held out his hand.

 

Susan shook the outstretched hand, “Susan Vincent.”

 

“Hey Sue! Come check this car out!” Sam called over to her.

 

He was standing beside Bumblebee.

 

“Let’s go get your friend that car, shall we?” Wally offered.

 

“That would be amazing of you,” Susan told him as they walked over to Sam, Ron, and Bobby.

 

“How much?” Ron was asking.

 

“Well, considering the semi-classic nature of the vehicle, with the slick wheels and the custom paint job…” Bobby started.

 

“Here it comes,” Susan and Wally said as the same time.

 

They eyed each other in confusion.

 

“Bobby always over prices cars. But why did you-“

 

“Sam’s Dad is kinda cheap,” Susan said quickly.

 

“Well, this is your first car. I wouldn't expect you to understand,” Bobby was telling Sam.

 

He started to say a price but Wally cut him off, “Four grand.”

 

“Wallace Irving what are you doing?” Bobby demanded.

 

“The kid’s right. It’s faded and the car obviously needs work. Four thousand is fair for this Camaro. Custom paint or not,” Wally argued.

 

“Aren’t you supposed to be off work now?” Bobby questioned.

 

“Well I accidentally bumped into Miss. Vincent on my way to go clock out and she asked me to help her friend here find a good first car. I agreed as a way to apologize to her for knocking her to the ground,” Wally told his boss, “I got this one Bobby. Why don’t you go say hello to your momma?”

 

“Punk ass kid,” Bobby complained as he walked away.

 

“Now, back to the car. How does four thousand sound?” Wally asked as he turned back to Ron.

 

“Perfect. We’ll take it,” Ron nodded.

 

“Yes!” Susan cheered.

 

“It’s my car, Sue. Why are you so happy?” Sam asked from inside the cab.

 

Susan leaned in the driver’s side window, “Let’s be honest, you would’ve never gotten this car for such a low price unless someone blew out the windows on every other car in this lot. Not only did I get you the car for the right price but I also made a new friend today.”

 

Ron laughed from behind her as Sam glared at her.

 

All three of them jumped a bit when Susan’s phone suddenly rang.

 

“Hey, Syd. What’s up?” Susan asked as she answered the device.

 

“Could you possibly stay with Sam for the weekend?” Sydney responded.

 

“Probably. Why though?” Susan asked as she stood up straight.

“Uh… the house is on fire.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Now this would be the part of the song**

**Where they drop the needle on and hell breaks loose**

**Try to restrain us, you can't contain us**

**We still gonna make it stick no matter what we do**

**Everywhere we go, it seems we looking**

**For any excuse to just cut loose**

 

**So this would be the part of the song**

**Where they drop the needle on and hell breaks loose**

 

Susan groaned as her fellow students chattered around her.

 

“Okay, mister Witwicky, you're up,” Mr. Hosney called over the noise.

 

Family genealogy reports.

 

No one had been overly happy with the assignment and it hadn’t helped that Susan had gotten a special pass via “unknown” sources to not do the project.

 

Sam stood from his seat beside Susan and walked to the front of the room with his bag.

 

“Sorry, I got a lot of stuff,” Sam apologized as he dumped out the stuff he had in his bag for his project.

 

“Watch this,” Susan heard Trent say from behind her.

 

“Oh no…” Susan breathed as she turned around to say something.

 

“Oh-kay. For my family genea- ah-”

 

A spitball hit Sam in the next causing the students around Susan to laugh, even Miles.

 

“Who did- who did that?” Mr. Hosney demanded as he stood up.

 

Trent looked around innocently while Susan glared straight at him. He caught her eye and he smirked at her before he threw her a wink, right in front of his girlfriend Mikaela.

 

“People! Responsibility,” Mr. Hosney added when he couldn’t find the culprit.

 

Susan scoffed in disgust as she turned back to her best friend.

 

“Okay. Um,” Sam mumbled as Mr. Hosney sat and gestured for him to start.

 

The students chortled as Sam continued.

 

“So, for my family genealogy report, I decided to do it on my great-great-grandfather, who was a famous man, Captain Archibald Witwicky. Very famous explorer. In fact, he was one of the first... to explore... the Arctic Circle, which is a big deal. In 1897, he took forty one brave sailors straight into the Arctic Shelf. So that's the story, right? And here we have some of the basic instruments and tools used by nineteenth century seamen.”

 

Everyone around Susan laughed again, she elbowed Miles to get him to shut up. Susan then realized what Sam was about to say, despite her warnings, and started to discreetly waving her hands around to try and get him to stop.

 

“This here is the quadrant, which you can get for eighty bucks. It's all for sale, by the way. Like the, uh, the sextant here,” Sam continued.

 

More laughing.

 

“Fifty dollars for this, which is a bargain. These are pretty cool. These are my grandfather's glasses. I haven't quite gotten them appraised yet, but they've seen many cool things.”

 

Susan groaned as she put her head on her desk in defeat.

 

“Are you going to sell me his liver? Mr. Witwicky, this isn't show and sell. It's the eleventh grade. I don't think your grandfather would be particularly proud of what you're doing,”  Mr. Hosney interrupted.

 

“I know. I'm sorry. I just, you know, this is all going towards my car fund. You can tell your folks. It's on eBay. I take PayPal. Cold hard cash works, too,” Sam tried to explain.

 

More laughing.

 

“And the compass makes a- a great gift for Columbus Day.”

 

“Sam!” Susan exclaimed.

 

He looked over at her desperate look and sighed.

 

“Sorry, Susie. Um, unfortunately, my great-great-grandfather, the genius that he was, wound up going blind and crazy in a psycho ward, drawing these strange symbols and babbling on about some, uh, giant ice man that he thought he'd discovered.”

 

The bell rang and everyone rushed out of the room. Susan sat there glaring, Sam was only allowed to call her Susie when it was just him and her, them and Miles, or them and either of their families.

 

“Okay. Might be a pop quiz tomorrow. Might not. Sleep in fear tonight,” Mr. Hosney said as they walked out.

 

“Today is a Friday, Mr. Hosney,” Susan informed the teacher as she stood and gathered her things.

 

“But they will still sleep in fear until they awake tomorrow and realize it’s thankfully a Saturday, Miss. Vincent,” he responded, “Sam?”

 

Sam stopped trying to sell his stuff and looked up, “Yeah. Sorry, sorry. Okay. Pretty good, right?” he asked as he ran over.

 

Susan face palmed as she leaned back against her desk.

 

“Uh... I'd say a solid B-minus.”

 

Susan knew the man was being generous with the B- only because she had managed to get Sam back on track so he was able to complete his report.

 

“A B-minus?” Sam questioned in disbelief.

 

“You were hawking your great-grandfather's crap in my classroom. And you would’ve continued had Miss. Vincent not spoken up and stopped you because you certainly weren’t listening to me or your other classmates,” the teacher told him.

 

San started to argue back, “No, kids enjoy- Look, can you do me a favor?”

 

“What?”

 

“Can you look out the window for a second? You see my father? He's the guy in the green car.”

 

“Nh. Yeah.”

 

“Okay, I wanna tell you about a dream. A boy's dream. And a man's promise to that boy. He looked at me in the eye. He said, "Son, I'm gonna buy you a car. But I want you to bring me two thousand dollars, and three As." Okay? I got the two thousand dollars and I got two As. Okay? Here's the dream. Your B-minus. Poof. Dream gone. Kaput. Sir, just ask yourself, what would Jesus do?”

  
➖➖➖

 

““What would Jesus do?” Sam what were you thinking? You could’ve gotten yourself an even worse grade with that argument of yours!” Susan exclaimed as she stormed towards Ron Witwicky’s car.

 

“But I didn’t, Susie,” Sam responded as he ran to keep up with the much shorter girl’s furious pace.

 

Susan stopped and spun around abruptly at the nickname, “And what did I tell you about calling me that?”

 

“I know, I know, I know, and I’m sorry. At the time I thought it might help calm you down,” Sam tried to defend himself as he nearly ran into the girl.

 

“Having a lover’s quarrel are we,  _ Susie _ ?” Trent taunted as he and his lackeys walked by.

 

“Obviously you were wrong!” She seethed at Sam before she spun on her heels and marched the rest of the way to the car.

 

“So?” Ron questioned as the two teens climbed in the car.

 

“A-minus. It's an A, though,” Sam told him quickly, hoping it would count so Susan wouldn’t be mad at him anymore.

 

“Wait, wait, wait. I can't see. It's an A.”

 

“So I'm good?” Sam asked hopefully.

 

“You're good,” Ron nodded as he drove away from the school.

 

Susan slipped on a pair of headphones to drown out the rest of the conversation.

 

“Say… what did you do to piss her off this time?” Ron asked Sam quietly.

 

“Called her Susie in class and then Trent walked by and asked if we were having a “lover’s quarrel” before calling her Susie,” Sam sighed as he slumped in his seat and glanced back at his female friend.

 

“Oh boy,” Ron commented.

 

 

➖➖➖

 

“I got a little surprise for you, son,” Ron said as he pulled into a Porsche car dealership.

 

Sam was confused, “What kind of s-” He started as he looked up.

 

“Yeah, a little surprise,” Ron nodded.

 

“No. No, no, no, no! Dad! Oh, you gotta be kidding me,” Sam all but yelled.

 

Susan slipped off her headphones and laughed.

 

“Yeah. I am. You're not getting a Porsche,” Ron laughed along with Susan.

 

Sam’s grin fell, “You think that's funny?”

 

“Yeah, I think it's funny.”

 

“What's wrong with you?”

 

“You think I'd really get you a Porsche? For your first car?”

 

“I don't want to talk to you for the rest of this whole thing. Or you,” Sam glared back at Susan who was trying to stifle her laughter.

 

“Yeah, sure thing, Sammy,” Susan replied as she leaned forward against the front seat.

 

“Oh, come on. It's just a practical joke,” Ron laughed.

 

‘It's not a funny joke,” Sam argued.

 

Ron parked the car and he and Sam climbed out before Sam helped Susan jump out of the back.

 

His face fell further as he turned and saw the place his father had brought them.

 

“Here? No, no, no, what is this? You said- you said half a car, not half a piece of crap, dad,” he said as they walked towards the office.

 

Susan took note that Bumblebee was nowhere to be seen yet.

 

“When I was your age, I'd have been happy with four wheels and an engine,” Ron told him.

 

“Okay, let me explain something to you. Okay? You ever see 40-Year-Old Virgin?” Sam asked.

 

“I'm outta here!” Someone yelled as he pushed past Susan.

 

She fell to the ground as the conversation between Sam and Ron continued.

 

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there,” the guy apologized as he helped Susan up.

 

“It’s fine. I wasn’t paying attention anyway,” Susan smiled as she glanced over to where a certain Camaro was now parked.

 

“You like that car?”

 

“Oh! Uh… yeah. I’m hoping my friend over there will get that Camaro for his first car. But I think it’s too expensive for what his dad wants to pay,” Susan sighed as she turned back to the guy.

 

He had red hair, green eyes, and a light dusting of freckles across his nose.

 

“Well, I haven’t clocked out yet. Maybe I can help you out with that. I’m Wally Irving by the way,” the guy told her as he held out his hand.

 

Susan shook the outstretched hand, “Susan Vincent.”

 

“Hey Sue! Come check this car out!” Sam called over to her.

 

He was standing beside Bumblebee.

 

“Let’s go get your friend that car, shall we?” Wally offered.

 

“That would be amazing of you,” Susan told him as they walked over to Sam, Ron, and Bobby.

 

“How much?” Ron was asking.

 

“Well, considering the semi-classic nature of the vehicle, with the slick wheels and the custom paint job…” Bobby started.

 

“Here it comes,” Susan and Wally said as the same time.

 

They eyed each other in confusion.

 

“Bobby always over prices cars. But why did you-“

 

“Sam’s Dad is kinda cheap,” Susan said quickly.

 

“Well, this is your first car. I wouldn't expect you to understand,” Bobby was telling Sam.

 

He started to say a price but Wally cut him off, “Four grand.”

 

“Wallace Irving what are you doing?” Bobby demanded.

 

“The kid’s right. It’s faded and the car obviously needs work. Four thousand is fair for this Camaro. Custom paint or not,” Wally argued.

 

“Aren’t you supposed to be off work now?” Bobby questioned.

 

“Well I accidentally bumped into Miss. Vincent on my way to go clock out and she asked me to help her friend here find a good first car. I agreed as a way to apologize to her for knocking her to the ground,” Wally told his boss, “I got this one Bobby. Why don’t you go say hello to your momma?”

 

“Punk ass kid,” Bobby complained as he walked away.

 

“Now, back to the car. How does four thousand sound?” Wally asked as he turned back to Ron.

 

“Perfect. We’ll take it,” Ron nodded.

 

“Yes!” Susan cheered.

 

“It’s my car, Sue. Why are you so happy?” Sam asked from inside the cab.

 

Susan leaned in the driver’s side window, “Let’s be honest, you would’ve never gotten this car for such a low price unless someone blew out the windows on every other car in this lot. Not only did I get you the car for the right price but I also made a new friend today.”

 

Ron laughed from behind her as Sam glared at her.

 

All three of them jumped a bit when Susan’s phone suddenly rang.

 

“Hey, Syd. What’s up?” Susan asked as she answered the device.

 

“Could you possibly stay with Sam for the weekend?” Sydney responded.

 

“Probably. Why though?” Susan asked as she stood up straight.

 

“Uh… the house is on fire.”


	10. Take My Hand (Simple Plan)

**Sometimes I feel like everybody's got a problem**

**Sometimes I feel like nobody wants to solve them**

**I know that people say we're never going to make it**

**But I know we're going to get through this**

**(Close your eyes and please don't let me go)**

**Don't, Don't, Don't, Don't let me go now**

**(Close your eyes don't let me let you go)**

**Don't, Don't, Don't**

 

**Take my hand tonight**

**Let's not think about tomorrow**

**Take my hand tonight**

**We could find some place to go**

**Cause our hearts are locked forever**

**And our love will never die**

**Take my hand tonight**

**One last time**

 

Susan gasped as Sam pulled up to the still ablaze house she and her friends called home in this dimension.

“Sydney!” she yelled as she sprinted for the house.

“Susan, wait!” Sam yelled as he parked the car and ran after her.

Sydney met Susan and held her back from continuing on.

“Where is she? Have they found her yet?” Susan asked as she searched the crowd.

“No they haven’t found her yet but they have to put the fire out before they can properly search the house,” Naida explained as she, Prue, and Claire ran over.

Miko had been home when the fire started and no one could find her.

“Annabeth is out looking and Lynelle has been trying to call her,” Claire added.

“Go with Sam and we’ll let you know when we find her,” Sydney told her as she tried to steer her sister away from the now smoldering ruins.

Susan started to argue with them.

“Sam! Take her home with you please and see if your parents will let her stay with you for awhile,” Sydney commanded as the teenager moved to stand beside her.

He nodded and pulled Susan back to the car. Once she was in he was quick to get in and speed off.

“She’ll be safe with Sam until we find Miko and dismember Frenzy, Sydney,” Claire told the teenager as she watched her sister be driven away, worry now clear on her previously calm face.

“Actually... Frenzy got away in the commotion of the crowd and the fire department showing up,” Prue spoke up.

“Damn it!” Claire exclaimed, “Well then it looks like the movie’s about to start.”

“First they target the Lennox family and Sydney stops them and then Frenzy burns down our house. So much for an element of surprise,” Prue sighed as she turned back to the house.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that when we have to, we actually know how to fight them with the weapons we were given,” Sydney responded as she looked down at the bracelets (which were her collapsed gauntlets in disguise) around her wrists that glowed briefly in acknowledgment of her words.

Lynelle and Annabeth ran over, one panting, the other with a look of relief.

“They found her in the backyard, she was unconscious but otherwise fine,” Lynelle announced.

“Good because something tells me we’re about to need our medic more than ever before,” Annabeth stated.

The girls nodded in agreement as they turned to the house.

➖➖➖

Susan frowned as she flopped down onto Sam’s bed. He didn’t mind though, he would never let her sleep on the couch or the floor so for the duration of her stays she got the bed and he slept on the floor. He spared her an apologetic glance before he walked back to the far side of the room where his bathroom and desk resided.

“Alright, Mojo. I got the car. Now I need the girl. I need money to take out the girl is what I need,” he muttered to his chihuahua as he sat at the computer, “Zero bids,” Sam exhaled in defeat, “Great. Broke. Come on, Mojo. You want your pain pills?” Sam asked as he stood and looked back towards the bed where Mojo was refusing to move from Susan’s side.

Sam moved around getting ready to head out again and Susan eventually sighed and shifted positions so she could see him.

“What are you doing, Sam?”

“We’re going to a party. Get up and get ready,” Sam turned walked over to address Mojo,  “Alright, I know you get wasted on these things, but if you piss in my bed again, you're sleeping outside. Okay? That's it for today. No more. Crackhead,” he said as he gave Mojo his pain medication.

“Miko might be dead and you want me to go to a party?” Susan asked as she stood.

As if on cue her phone started ringing.

“Hello?” she all but demanded as she answered it without looking.

“I’m perfectly fine, just got knocked unconscious by Frenzy in the backyard after I ran out to escape the fire.”

It was Miko.

“So on a scale of a bump on the head to a major concussion, how bad is it?” Susan asked.

“Just a bump on the head, Sue. I’m fine, so make sure you go to that lake party with Sam,” Miko told her.

“Is that an order from the boss?” Susan joked.

There was a muffled exchange before someone else came on the phone.

“Yes, Sue, that’s an order directly from me.”

“I was joking, Annabeth. Of course I’m going. I’ll talk to you guys later,” Susan responded before she hung up.

“So?” Sam asked.

“Miko’s fine. Let’s go to that party,” Susan smiled.   
  


“Ron, this one is uneven,” Judy was informing Ron.

“Yeah. Probably,” Ron responded.

‘This one is wobbly,” she complained.

“Yeah. I'll take care of that real soon,” Ron was rather uninterested as he continued working on the path.

‘Oh. Couldn't we have hired a professional?” Judy asked.

Sam laughed as he carried Susan out of the house and onto the lawn on his back.

Ron laughed sarcastically, “Ah, Sam…”

“What?” Sam asked.

“...I do not like footprints on my grass,” Ron told him.

“What foot- there's no footprints,” Sam complained as he gestured around with one hand.

Ron gestured to the path he was currently working on, “That's why I built my path. So why don't you go from my grass onto my path, okay?”

“It's family grass, Dad,” Sam sighed as he walked off the grass and let Susan down.

Ron smiled, “Well, when you own your own grass, you'll understand.”

“This, this, I can't do it anymore,” Sam said as he walked up to his mother.

“What?” Judy asked.

“You're putting girl jewelry on a boy dog. He's got enough self-esteem issues as a Chihuahua, Mom,” Sam told her.

Judy smiled, “That's his bling…”

Sam shook his head as he grabbed Susan’s hand and dragged her towards his Camaro.

“I want you home at eleven o'clock!” Judy called after them.

“Yeah, alright,” Sam agreed.

“Eleven o'clock!” Ron shouted.

“Please, for the love of God, drive safely,” Judy gasped as Sam started the car.

“Seat belt on!” Ron yelled at him.

Sam drove off without another word.

Judy stood there with her hand over her heart, “Wow. You are so cheap.”

“Well, it's his first car. It's supposed to be like that,” Ron told her before he returned to his work.

➖➖➖

“Dude, are you sure we're invited to this party?” Miles asked from the backseat, “And why does she get to ride shotgun?”

“Of course, Miles. It's a lake. Public property. And Sue gets front seat because she wanted it. Give her a break man, one of her friends almost died today and her house got burnt down,” Sam responded.

People were standing around chatting when they pulled up.

Sam looked through the crowd closest to them and started to panic, “Oh, my God. Oh, my God, dude, Mikaela's here. Just don't do anything weird, all right? I'm good, right?”

Susan frowned as she climbed out of the car after Sam and Miles.

“Yeah, you're good,” Miles nodded.

“Okay,” Sam glanced back at Susan one last time to see her see on the hood of the Camaro and pull out her phone.

Trent noticed Sam and Miles and threw this friend back the football they were playing with, “Hey, guys, check it out.”

“Oh, hi,” he said as Mikaela walked up and put her arms around him, “Hey, bro. That car. It's nice. Hey. So, what are you guys doing here?”

“We're here to climb this tree,” Sam lied as Miles started to climb the tree the group was standing around.

“This is gonna be so much more painful to watch in person instead of through a tv screen,” Susan sighed as she pretended to play on her phone.

She tried to focus on her blank phone screen or the lake but neither was working as her gaze kept being drawn over to Sam.

“Haha. No, it's about the link between brain damage and football. No, it's a- it's a good book. Your- Your friends'll love it. You know, it's got mazes in it and, you know, little coloring areas, sections, pop-up pictures. It's a lot of fun,” she heard Sam say.

“Shit. Bee you gotta make sure that Sam drives Mikaela home while I go do something stupid,” Susan said before she ran over to the group.

Susan was quick to get between Trent and Sam.

“I would rethink that if I were you,” She growled.

Trent took a step back when he saw the look in her eye but he was quick to recover and challenge her, “Oh yeah,  _ Susie _ ?”

“Anyone who doesn’t wanna get hurt should leave now.”

Most of the girls, including Mikaela and a girl who looked suspiciously like Alexis from Transformers Armada, ran off as well as Miles.

“Sam, get in your car and leave. I don’t care if you drive someone home but get out of here before you give me more work to do,” she told Sam.

Sam looked like he wanted to argue but he trusted the brunette enough to leave anyway.

Trent and his buddies encircled her, taunting that she should have left with everyone else.

“Now that they’re gone, shall we have some fun?” She questioned as she reached inside the pouch on her belt and pulled out her bo staff.

It extended and she took a stance Claire had taught her long ago.

“Teach her a lesson!” Trent yelled.

The group of teenage boys descended upon Susan.


	11. Satellite (Rise Against)

**Because we won't back down**

**We won't run and hide**

**Yeah, 'cause these are the things that we can't deny**

**I'm passing over you like a satellite**

**So catch me if I fall**

**That's why we stick to your game plans and party lines**

**But at night we're conspiring by candlelight**

**We are the orphans of the American dream**

**So shine your light on me (shine your light on me)**

 

**No, we won't back down**

**We won't run and hide**

**Yeah, 'cause these are the things that we can't deny (shine your light on me)**

**I'm passing over you like a satellite**

**'Cause these are the things that we can't deny now**

**This is a life that you can't deny us now**

 

When Sam got home later Susan was already in bed watching Friends reruns.

“How- How did you manage to- How?” Sam asked.

“Have you met my family?”

“Touche,” Sam sighed, “Move over.”

Susan slid over and Sam jumped on the bed beside her to watch the old show as well.

“So what took you so long?” Susan asked.

“I drove Mikaela Banes home so she wouldn’t have to walk. Almost drove her best friend Alexis home too but her ride showed up in time,” Sam shrugged.

“That’s great. So how did it go?” Susan asked as she sat up.

“Fine I guess. Let’s not talk about it,” Sam responded.

Susan leaned back and put her hands up, “Okay, Okay.”

There was a long silence.

“This show is so old. I can’t believe they still show these reruns,” she laughed.

“It only ended three years ago,” Sam told her as he looked over at her.

Susan paused, “Right. Sorry, I forgot.”

Sam eyed her for a minute before they went back to watching tv.

➖➖➖

Sam gasped as he was jolted awake by the sound of an engine starting.

“Sue!” he shouted as he leapt off the bed and ran to the upper porch.’

Susan groaned as she sat up and threw the covers off. She turned off the tv and grabbed one of Sam’s sweatshirts as she followed him down the stairs, already well aware of what was going on.

“Dad, call the cops!” Sam yelled as he grabbed his bike and started after his car.

Susan blinked her eyes to wake herself up more before she grabbed her bike and followed after him. 

“Where you going with my car, buddy? Where you going? Hello? 911 emergency! My car has been stolen! I'm in pursuit! Right? I need all units, the whole, the whole squadron. Bring everyone! No, don't ask me questions, all right? My father's the head of the neighborhood watch!”

Susan groaned as she followed just behind Sam and overheard his phone call. She also knew where this was headed and really didn’t want to have to tell Ron and Judy that Sam had been arrested.

Sam and Susan followed Bumblebee into a massive junk yard and ditched their bikes to continue on foot.

“Oh my God,” Sam breathed as before a light hit him and he yanked Susan down next to him.

Susan knelt so she could still watch Bumblebee send his message to the other Autobots.

Beside her Sam was recording on his phone, “Our names- are Sam Witwicky and Susan Vincent. Whoever finds this, my car is alive, okay? You saw that? Since this is my last words on Earth, I just wanna say, Mom, Dad, I love you, and if you find Busty Beauties under my bed, it wasn't mine. I'm holding it for Miles. No, no, wait, that- Okay, that's not true. It's mine and Uncle Charles gave it to me. I'm sorry. Mojo, I love you.”

Susan had to fight multiple urges: 1) to hit Sam for the magazine, 2) to delete the recording, and 3) to stop him from possibly saying any mushy last words to her.

“Stay here, I’m gonna try and get closer,” Sam told her before he started to stand.

“Wait!” Susan whisper-yelled as she yanked him back down and quickly pressed her lips to his, “For luck and in case you die you’ll die having kissed a girl. Now go.”

With that she shoved him out from behind their hiding place and went around the opposite way herself.

It didn’t take long for Susan to regret letting Sam go off on own.

“No! No! No! No! My God. No, you're a good dog! Good dog! Good dog! Oh my God. Whoa! Hey, hey, hey, hey! Whoa! All right! Oh! No! No! Okay. Please, please don't kill me! I'm sorry! Take the keys! I don't want them! Car's yours!”

Susan couldn’t run fast enough to try and find her best friend.

Just as a police car pulled up in front of Sam, Bumblebee pulled up in front of Susan.

“Get in- we need to talk-“

Susan looked over Bumblebee to see Sam being arrested and defeatedly climbed into the waiting Autobot.

“Sam needs us back there,” Susan tried as Bumblebee drove off.

“I believe you know why- we can’t go back there- little lady-” Bumblebee responded.

Susan frowned as she looked back at the junkyard one last time before she sighed and allowed the scout to take her wherever he had planned.

“So- how do you know me?”

“My family and I are from another dimension. One in which this dimension is fiction, it doesn’t really exist. We were brought here by some bright light with a deep voice and told to use our vast knowledge on the Transformers to help end this war,” Susan explained.

“Primus- brought you here? How many are you?” Bumblebee asked.

“There’s eight of us. I’m Susan, then there’s my sister Sydney, Annabeth, Claire, Lynelle, Miko, Prue, and Nadia.”

Bumblebee buzzed in response before he pulled into the Witwicky’s driveway.

“Oh… I get to tell them they’re son got arrested. Fun…” Susan said before she groaned and climbed out.

“Good luck!” Bumblebee called after her as she walked to the house.

➖➖➖

“Look, I can't be any clearer than how crystal clear I am being. It just stood up,” Sam was explaining.

Susan fought back the urge to shock everyone with her bo staff as Ron looked at him like he was crazy and the deputy responded to her best friend, “It just stood up. Wow. It's really neat. Okay, chiefie. Time to fill her up. And no drippy-drippy,” Sam stared at him as he was handed a urine sample cup and a tissue, “What are you rolling? Whippets? Goofballs? A little wowie sauce with the boys?”

“No, I'm not on any drugs. And I’m not doing this in front of Sue,” Sam replied.

“Nothing your girl hasn’t seen before I’m sure. What's these? Found it in your pocket. Mo-jo. Is that what the kids are doing now? Little bit of Mo-jo?” The deputy said as he was tossed a bottle of pills.

“She’s my best friend, not my girlfriend. We don’t do that stuff together and those are my dog's pain pills,” Sam fumed.

“You know, a chihuahua. A little…” Ron spoke up, demonstrating Mojo’s size with his hands.

The deputy leaned forward and rubbed his temples causing his gun to be revealed inside his jacket.

Sam stared at it in fear and the deputy noticed, “What was that?”

“Huh?” Sam mumbled as he looked up at the deputy’s face.

The deputy leaned forward, “You eyeballing my piece, Fifty Cent? You wanna go? Make something happen. Do it. 'Cause I promise you. I will bust you up.”

“Are you on drugs?” Susan asked before Sam could, “Stop threatening my friend and either tell us what’s he’s charged with or let us pay the bail and go home,” she finished as she slammed her hand with a large wad of cash onto the table, getting between Sam and the deputy.

Everyone stared at her in shock.

Sam was released and the three of them walked out of the station together.

“Okay, where did you get all of that cash? You don’t work,” Sam inquired.

“Have you met my family?” Susan questioned like usual before she climbed in the car.

“One day that excuse won’t work for her anymore, right dad?” Sam asked.

“For your sake, I sure hope so, son,” Ron sighed before he climbed in as well.

Sam shook his head before he climbed in beside Susan.

The rest of the night went on eventless and Bumblebee had disappeared after dropping Susan off.


	12. Monster (Vocaloid)

**Funny how you think I'm bothered**

**Know I'm nothing like the others**

**You shouldn't have messed with me**

**'Cause I heard**

**That you're afraid of monsters, monsters**

 

**Are you ready for the monster, monster?**

**Are you ready for the monster, monster?**

**Are you ready for the monster, monster?**

**You ain't ready for the monster, monster!**

 

“It was an awesome spectacle here an hour ago when over forty C-17s lifted off of this very base. We're not told where they're going-“ The reporter on the tv was saying.

Susan was already up watching the news report when Sam walked in.

  
“Morning, Mo, Sue.”

  
“The government has been very quiet about what's going on but in our vision-“

  
Susan waved her spoon at him as she remained focused on the tv.

“Hey… We should talk about last night,” Sam said as he grabbed out the milk for him own cereal.

“They were headed directly towards North Korea.”

Susan sighed as she turned away from the tv to watch Sam pour himself cereal before grabbing the milk, “What about last night?”

From the window Mojo spotted Bumblebee pulling into the driveway and started barking at him.

“Stop with the barking, Mojo. It's too early. Please?” Sam groaned before he looked out the window and gasped as he dropped the open milk from his hands.

He pulled out his phone and dialed a number as he hid away from the widow, “Miles? Miles, listen to me. Listen. My car, it stole itself, okay?”

Susan could hear Miles on the over end of the line even from her seat at the island, “What are you talking about, man?”

  
“Satan's Camaro. In my yard. It's stalking me,” Susan had to stop herself from laughing as Sam’s voice cracked.

Sam grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the house where he grabbed his mom’s pink bike. Susan stood on the back and held on to Sam as he furiously peddled down the sidewalk. 

Bumblebee was slowly driving behind them down the sidewalk when Sam looked over his shoulder, “Ah. Ah- Stop!”

Susan closed her eyes as Sam cut diagonally across an intersection through traffic, “Primus, I don’t wanna die,” She whispered as she opened her eyes again and glanced back at Bumblebee.

When she turned around she noticed where they were and instantly started to panic again.

“Sam watch out!”

The bike hit the uneven sidewalk and they were both sent flying before Susan could jump off.

“Oh, oh- woah!” Sam yelled.

He somehow managed to grab Susan and provide her with his body as a soft landing.

  
“Oh my God!” Someone commented.

Susan groaned as she stood and offered her hand to Sam.

“Sue? Sam?” Mikaela questioned as Sam allowed Susan to help him stand.

The two friends looked up to see Mikaela's friends laughing at them.

Sam grunted in pain, “Oh, hi.”

  
“That was, uh, that was really... awesome,” Mikaela said as she tried to get her friends to stop laughing.

Alexis stepped over the ankle height bushes from the outdoor seating of the Burger King they were at to pick up Judy’s bike for them as Sam spoke with Mikaela, “Uh, well, it felt awesome.”

  
“Are you guys okay?” Mikaela asked as she stepped over the bushes to get a better look for any injuries.

Sam brushed her off, “I'm not okay, alright? I'm losing my mind a little bit. I'm getting chased by my car right now. Got to go.”

He thanked Alexis as he took the bike from her and climbed back on.

“Sue,” he said as he waited.

“Pray for me,” Susan told Mikaela and Alexis as she briefly held their hands.

She climbed back on to the back of the bike and they were off again.

  
Mikaela looked back at her friends and then after Sam and Susan again, “You know what? I'm gonna catch up with you guys later.”

“Yeah. Bye guys,” Alexis nodded as she followed Mikaela to her moped.

  
Sam was still somehow yelling and gasping when they got to the junkyard.

He hadn’t even come to a stop and Susan had jumped off and walked back the way they had come to look around. She climbed up on a car as she tried to spot Bumblebee or Barricade.

Sam spotted Barricade first, “Oh, great. Cops.”

He peddled over to the cop car.

“That’s not a cop, Sam!” She shouted after him as she took off in a run.

“Officer! Listen!” Barricade opened his door sending Sam to the ground, “Ah- oh. Oh that hurt,” Sam stood and tried again, “Listen to me! Thank God you're here! I've had the worst day ever! I've been, I've been followed here on my mother's bike! Right? And my car's right there and it's been following me here! So get out of the car!”

Sam hit the hood and Barricade lurched forward sending him backwards on his butt. Sam started shouting and apologizing as he scooted backwards from Barricade’s continued approach.

“Sam! Run, Sam!” Susan yelled as she got closer to him.

“Okay, what do you want from me?”

Barricade stopped briefly before he roared and transformed.   
  
“Oh, God, no! No!” Sam yelled as he got up and started running.

He ran into Susan and dragged her along after him as Barricade gave chase.

Barricade roared again as he swatted them and sent them flying. Sam landed on top of a car’s hood while Susan hit the side of a closer truck and fell to the pavement with a loud thud.

“Oh, shit! Oh, shit, shit, shit! Oh, God! Oh! Shit! Aaa! It's a bad dream,” sam said before he started screaming as Barricade grabbed the sides of the car.

“Are you username Ladies-Man-two-one-seven?” He demanded.

  
“I don't know what you're talking about!” Sam shouted back.

“Don’t tell him anything, Sam,” Susan groaned as she tried to pick herself up.

“Are you username Ladies-Man-two-one-seven?”

  
Sam glanced between Susan and Barricade before he answered, “Yeah.”

Susan hung her head.

“Where is eBay item two-one-one-five-three?” Barricade continued.

  
“Huh-“

  
“Where are the-“

Susan had gotten up and had one end of her laser ended bo staff in Barricade’s side. He hissed in pain as he left go of the car to grab his side.

“Run!” Susan screamed as she grabbed Sam off the car and started sprinting away from Barricade.

  
As they ran they couldn’t help but look behind themselves to see where Barricade was. He was hot on their heels.

“Get back! Stop!” Sam shouted causing Susan to look ahead again.

Mikaela and Alexis were coming towards them. Sam grabbed them both as he knocked them off the moped.

“What is your problem, Sam?” Alexis demanded as they sat up and Mikaela threw off her helmet.

  
Sam looked behind them again, “Okay, there's a monster right there! It just attacked us! Here he comes!”

Barricade flipped over two cars as he ran towards them.

“Get up and run! You all have to run!” Susan told them as she stood her ground in front of them, bo staff still in hand.

From behind Barricade a black Impala roared to life and shot out of a space in the junk to take out his legs. It spung to a stop next to the teens just as Bumblebee pulled up in front of them.

“Sam, what’s going on?” Mikaela asked.

“All of you get in the Camaro and get out of here. I’ll deal with this- monster as you put it.” Lynelle told them as she climbed out of the Impala.

Sam, Mikaela, and Alexis scrambled into Bumblebee while Susan stayed put.

“You too, Sue. We want them as safe as possible. Oh and Annabeth said to make sure you end up at the observatory at the right time,” Lynelle told her as she walked over.

“Be careful,” Susan sighed as she collapsed her bo staff and hugged the blonde woman.

“Go.”

Susan climbed into the passenger side of Bumblebee and the Camaro was off.

Susan turned around and leaned out the window to watch as Lynelle took out her electric whip to engage Barricade.

As she faced forward again Sam took her hand before he squeezed it reassuringly.

“She’ll be fine. After all, have you met your family?” He joked.

“We don’t know that. We’ve trained and shit but we’ve never gotten to practice on an actual Decepticon to see if it paid off any,” Susan frowned.

“Decepticon?” Alexis questioned from the back seat.

Susan sighed almost in defeat, “They’re the bad guys of this story. That “monster” back there is the Decepticon known as Barricade.”

No one had time to question her as Barricade showed up in their rearview mirrors. Bumblebee started playing Pretty Handsome Awkward as if he was enjoying the high speed chase they were now engaged in.

“Oh god,” Susan breathed while Sam yelled from the driver seat, “Go, go, go, go!”

“Oh, God! We're gonna die! We're gonna die!” Mikaela gasped/yelled as she death gripped the seats.

Sam looked in the mirror as he responded with, “No, we're not. No, we're not gonna die.”

  
“Oh, my God!” Alexis said as if she didn’t believe him.

  
“Trust me. He's a kick-ass driver!” Sam added.

Mikaela shouted, “Fuck!” as she stared ahead of them at the giant glass window they were headed straight for.

Susan braced herself against the dash and the door while Alexis death gripped the seat around her.

“Oh my God! No! We're gonna die!” Sam screamed girlishly as they soared through the window.

Mikaela leaned forward to hug Susan’s seat as she screwed her eyes shut, “Oh, oh my God!”

The Impala roared in after Barricade and drove straight into him allowing Bumblebee to make an escape and hide within the junkyard.

➖➖➖

The sound of an engine approaching caused Bumblebee to back up into a space and park before shutting himself off.

Sam tried the doors and the engine with no avail.

“We're locked in. Unh! The car won't start. At least we ditched the monster, right?” Sam asked as he looked around.

“Not unless Lynelle performed a miracle,” Susan informed them as she pointed ahead of them.

On cue Barricade slowly drove past the row they were hiding in and stopped. Bumblebee started to try and start back up as quietly as he could.

“Okay. Time to start…” Sam encouraged him.

The Camaro roared to life and shot out of the row right behind Barricade who had started to back up in an attempt to block their escape.   


Bumblebee swung around to a stop and opened his doors. The four teens scrambled out and Bumblebee transformed before assuming a fighting stance to await Barricade’s rapid approach. Barricade transformed and tackled Bumblebee over the teens.

  
Barricade roared, “Die!” before more roaring followed.   
  
Frenzy jumped out of Barricade’s subspace speaking in Cybertronian.

“Frenzy’s mine. Get out of here you three,” Susan growled as she took out her bo staff once more.   
  
Barricade roared and shouted in Cybertronian and he and Bumblebee engaged each other as Sam, Mikaela, and Alexis ran off.

  
Frenzy spoke to Susan in Cybertronian while she glared back at him.

“English, Frenzy, English,” she told him.   
  


“Human girls are annoying. Why you get in our way?” Frenzy asked.

“Why you hurt my friend?” Susan mocked him.

“Girl in house was only one home. All girls were targets. Girls bad for Megatron’s plan. Girls must die,” Frenzy hissed.

“Come get me then!”

Frenzy leapt at her and Susan batted him away like her staff was a bat.

“We have to go back and help Sue,” Mikaela panted as she pulled Sam to a stop.

“But she said to get away,” Sam argued.

“Are you really just gonna leave your best friend to fight that thing alone? You heard her in the car, they’ve trained but haven’t had an opponent to match those things. She could die, Sam!”

“Yeah, it’s so easy for you to stand here and say that but earlier proved that this all terrifies you. Running is are only option. Besides, have you met her family?”

  
Mikaela sharpened her glared at him, “I have actually, her sister Sydney and the woman that saved us earlier, Lynelle. I’m going to help her with or without you,” with that she ran back the way they had come.

Alexis looked between Sam and after Mikaela as if to ask what he was gonna do.

“What can we do to help? Sue’s trained and seems to know everything, we don’t even have a clue what’s going on,” Sam sighed as he sat down and put his head in his hands.

Alexis spared one last glance after Mikaela before she sighed and sat beside Sam.

Meanwhile Mikaela had arrived back at where Susan was currently engaged in combat with Frenzy.

“You little shit. Stop that!” Susan yelled as she dodged a set of bullets.

“Sue! Your staff!” Mikaela called out as she ran over.

Susan tossed the brunette her bo staff before she turned to continue holding Frenzy back.

It took Mikaela a minute to figure out how to switch the weapon’s mode before it finally zapped to life in her hands.

She gave a yell as she charged Frenzy and started hacking him to pieces.

“Kaela, Kaela, stop, he’s practically just a head,” Susan said as she pulled the girl off the little alien robot.

Mikaela lowered the staff as she panted.   
  
“Here, come on. Let’s go find the others,” Susan smiled as she gently took her bo staff back from Mikaela.

Mikaela nodded and they took off in a jog to find Sam and Alexis.   
  
The four teens ran into each other and Lynelle shortly after.

“I was so worried you were dead or something,” Susan said as she hugged the older blonde woman close.

“I’m fine. Just a few bruises and scrapes. I have to get back to the others and report in. You’re safe as long as you stay with Bumblebee. I’ll see all of you later in the alley,” Lynelle responded before she walked away without explaining herself.

“Your family is weird, Sue,” Mikaela commented before Bumblebee walked to the top of the hill they were standing on and gave an electronic sound.

  
“What is it?” She asked as she stared up at him.

“It's a robot. But like a, like a different, you know, like a super-advanced... robot. It's probably Japanese. Yeah, yeah, it's definitely Japanese,” Sam nodded as he stepped closer to Bumblebee.

“He’s not Japanese,” Susan interjected.

  
Mikaela stepped closer to Sam to grab his sleeve, “What are you doing?”

  
“I don't think it wants to hurt us. It would have done that already. Plus Sue seems to know him,” Sam replied.

“Really? Well Sue seems to know every robot we meet,” Alexis told him.

  
“I think it wants something from me.”   
  
“What?” The two girls asked together.

  
Sam shrugged, “Well, 'cause the other one was talking about my eBay page.”

  
“You’re almost stranger than Sue’s family.”   
  


“There’s a reason for that,” Sue commented as Sam stepped closer to Bumblebee again.

“Can you talk?” Sam shouted up to him.

  
“XM Satellite Radio- digital cable brings you- Columbia Broadcasting System,” Bumblebee answered.   
  
“So you talk through the radio?” Alexis asked as Susan stepped around Sam and walked up the hill to stand next to the robot.

  
“Thank you, you're beautiful. You're wonderful, you're wonderful,” Bumblebee told her as he knelt down to Sue.

  
“So, what was that last night? What was that?”

  
Bumblebee looked back up at the other teens, “Message from Starfleet, Captain- Throughout the inanimate vastness of space- Angels will rain down like visitors from heaven- hallelujah!”

  
“Visitors from heaven? What, what are you, like, an alien or something?” Mikaela questioned as she stepped past Sam.

  
Bumblebee gave her an electronic squeal before he stepped back from Susan and transformed.

“Any more questions you want to ask?” Bumblebee inquired as he opened the door for them.

“ _ This _ is why my family is so weird,” Susan smiled as she gestured to the Camaro before she climbed into the backseat.

“He wants us to get in the car,” Sam whispered.

  
“And go where?” Mikaela asked.

  
Bumblebee started to play Before It's Too Late as Alexis climbed in the back with Susan.

  
Sam turned to Mikaela, “Fifty years from now, when you're looking back at your life, don't you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?”

  
Mikaela frowned before she reluctantly stepped into the car followed by Sam. The door shut and they were off.

➖➖➖

An awkward silence hung over the occupants of the car.

Alexis and Susan sat in the back mostly looking at each other to see who would speak, if either of them, while Sam sat in the passenger seat mostly looking at Mikaela who sat on the divider between the passenger and driver’s seat.

“This car's a pretty good driver,” Mikaela eventually spoke up.   


“Sweet little bumblebee,” sang from Bumblebee’s radio.

“Bumblebee. Is that your name?” Mikaela inquired.

“You got it- sweetheart,” Bumblebee replied.

“Why don't you go sit in that seat, there?” Sam asked.   
  


“I'm not going to sit in that seat. He's driving,” Mikaela all but snapped.   
  


“Yeah. You're right. Well, maybe you should sit in my lap.”

Alexis and Susan shared a look to communicate their dislike of being in the car with the two at the moment.

“Now wait a minute, just  _ wait  _ a minute- The girl can make her own choices- 'Cause I'm zero to 60 in three point five. Baby, you got the keys. Now shut up and drive,” Bumblebee interjected before Mikaela could defend her own honor.

Mikaela giggled before she turned to Sam, “Why?”

  
“Well, I have the only seat belt here. You know, safety first,” Sam said sheepishly, his plan now dangerously off course,

Susan pulled on her seatbelt and showed it to Sam. He glared at her for not backing him up.

Mikaela thought on it for a moment before she nodded, “Yeah, all right.”   
  


“Really?” Sam asked, now excited.

“I’ll drive if you want, Bee,” she smirked as she slid into the driver’s seat.

Bumblebee wrapped the seat belt around her and relinquished control to her.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Griffith Observatory.”

There was another long, heavy, awkward silence.

“You know, that seat belt thing was a pretty smooth move,” Mikaela commented.   


Sam sniffed before he laughed, “Thank you.”

“You know what I don't understand?” Alexis suddenly asked.   


“Hmm?” Sam questioned as he looked back at the short haired brunette.   


“Why, if he's supposed to be this super-advanced robot, does he transform back into this old piece of crap Camaro?” she continued as she leaned forward to look at Mikaela.   


Bumblebee gave a sharp electronic sound as he slammed on his brakes.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Bee!” Mikaela exclaimed while Sam and Susan yelled in surprise.   


“Oh, see? No. Get- no, that doesn't work. See?” Sam rambled as the doors opened and they all climbed out.   
  


“Move it, you moron!” someone shouted behind them.

“Fuck off!” Susan yelled back as Bumblebee drove off back the way they came.   


The four of them stood on the side of the highway all glaring at Alexis.

“Great, now... See? Fantastic. Now you pissed him off. That car is sensitive. I mean, four thousand dollars just drove off,” Sam complained as he started to freak out.

Susan tried to calm him down so he wouldn’t blow up on her.

“What? I was just asking what, at least Mikaela, was also thinking,” Alexis said as she held up her hands.

“But I didn’t say it out loud! He let me drive!” Mikaela exclaimed.   


An upbeat tune had them all turning back to the highway to see Bumblebee pull back up as a shiny new 2007 Chevy Camaro.   


“What-?”


	13. Glad You Came (The Wanted)

**The sun goes down**

**The stars come out**

**And all that counts**

**Is here and now**

**My universe will never be the same**

**I'm glad you came**

**I’m glad you came**

 

Mikaela had somehow convinced Bumblebee to let her drive again despite the fact that he was still mad over the “old piece of crap Camaro” comment.

Susan tried to recall from her knowledge of Transformers if she had ever seen the two so close. Sydney making some comment about liking the growth between them in the comics rang through her head.

“At least they fit well together,” Susan sighed quietly.

“What was that, Susie?” Sam questioned as he leaned back to get closer to her.

“Nothing. Sorry things don’t seems to be going your way with Kaela,” Susan whispered back.

“It’s alright. I think this all has started to make me rethink who I like,” Sam replied.

“Care to share, love birds?” Alexis asked rather loudly causing everyone to jump a little.

“Not love birds,” Sam and Susan glared together.

Alexis shrugged, “We’ll see.”

“I got 50 bucks that says they won’t get together till college due to their own stubbornness and inability to accept to obvious,” Mikaela smirked.

“100 says it’ll be before that,” Alexis challenged.

“Oh you’re on!” Mikaela grinned before they pushed through the gates to the observatory.

Mikaela parked and everyone climbed out as lightning started to strike around them.

The four of them stood in front of Bumblebee as they watched in awe and shock as 10 meteors hurled towards Earth.

More lightning flashed causing Sam to jump.

One landed close to them while the others landed within or close to the town limits.

“Come on, let's go see,” Alexis said as she pulled Mikaela and Susan in the direction of the closest meteor.

Sam ran after them until they stopped a few yards away from the meteor to hide on a small hill above it.

Mikaela almost gasped but Susan managed to cover her mouth in time as the meteor transformed and ran off.

“Let’s move. We’ve got places to be,” Susan spoke softly as she released Mikaela’s mouth from her hands.

The others shared a look of confusion before they followed her back to Bumblebee.   


➖➖➖

As Bumblebee came to a stop the four teens climbed out of the Camaro to witness history.

From one end of the dingy alley a 2007 flame painted Peterbilt 379 drove towards them while a black 2006 GMC Topkick GMT560, yellow 2004 Hummer H2, silver 2007 Pontiac Solstice GXP, 2005 Saleen Extreme Cop Car, red 2006 Lamborghini Gallardo GTV,  yellow 2006 Lamborghini Gallardo GTV, blue 2007 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano F1, and a red 2007 Mustang GT came at them from the other end. Two fighter jets flew overhead before circling to hover over the alleyway.

After a few minutes a horn honked from behind the Peterbilt as an all too familiar black Chevy Impala, a gray Jeep Wrangler, and a black motorcycle sped up the alley one after another.

The vehicles all came to a stop around Bumblebee and the human teens. Lynelle and Sydney jumped out of the Impala, Prue off her motorcycle- helmet still in hand, and Annabeth, Claire, Nadia, and Miko jumped down out of the Jeep to all run over as the Autobots began to transform around them.

  
Sam exhaled in amazement as Optimus knelt down closer to the humans’ level.   
  
“Are you Samuel James Witwicky, descendent of Archibald Witwicky?” Optimus asked.   
  
“How do they know your name?” Alexis whispered.   
  
“Yeah…” Sam answered hesitantly.   
  
Optimus smiled in relief, “My name is Optimus Prime. We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron,”   
  
“But you can call us Autobots for short,” Ratchet added.   
  
“Autobots,” Sam nodded.

“The good guys of this story…?” Mikaela questioned as she looked to the 8 girls who stood apart from her, Alexis, and Sam.

“You guessed it,” Nadia grinned as she flashed the girl a thumbs up.   
  
“What's crackin', little bitches?” Jazz questioned as he looked over the humans before him.   
  
“My first lieutenant,” Optimus informed them.   
  
“Hyah!” Jazz did a few flips before landing on a junker car behind him.   
  
“Could you not Jazz? Please, for once?” the cop car asked.

“Chill out, Prowl. This looks like a cool place to kick it,” Jazz responded.   
  


“Prowl?” Claire questioned as she leaned closer to Annabeth.

“This is  _ way _ more Autobots than we anticipated,” Lynelle commented as she slowly spun in a circle to look up at all of the Cybertronians.

“This is way more humans than  _ we _ anticipated,” one of the jets commented back.

  
“What is that? How did he learn to talk like that?” Sam was asking Optimus as he pointed to Jazz who was now bickering with Prowl.

  
“We've learned Earth's languages through the World Wide Web. My weapons specialist, Ironhide,” Optimus continued as he gestured to Ironhide.

  
Ironhide activated his cannons and pointed down at the humans, “You feeling lucky, punk?” He questioned.

  
Optimus sighed seeming rather annoyed, “Easy, Ironhide.”

  
“Just kidding. I just wanted to show them my cannons,” Ironhide chuckled.

  
Sam let out the breath he had been holding and chuckled nervously.

  
“Our medical officer, Ratchet.”

  
Ratchet sniffed the air, “Mmm. The boy's pheromone level suggests he wants to mate with the female.”

Seven of the eight other dimension girls   
laughed.

“Uh… I don’t think he means Kaela anymore,” Susan whispered under her breath.

No one spoke but the looks on their faces said that they had at least heard her.

“But-“

Miko cut Nadia off as she pointed over to Mikaela who was quietly talking with Bumblebee who was squatted down to be closer to her. Everyone looked back over to Susan.

“Timeline,” the brunette shrugged with an awkward smile.

  
“You already know your guardian, Bumblebee,” Optimus said to clear the air.

  
“So you're my guardian, huh?” Sam asked.

  
Bumblebee perked up and gave the boy an electronic buzz before he squealed as Ratchet scanner hit his neck.

  
“His vocal processors were damaged in battle,” Bumblebee coughed, “I'm still working on them,” Ratchet explained as he tapped away at his wrist computer.

“Our frontliners, twins Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.”

The Lamborghinis looked up from their private conversation with a hint of surprise at the sound of their names.

Sideswipe smiled and waved while Sunstreaker gave a brief nod.

“Our spy, Mirage.”

The Ferrari disappeared from beside Ironhide before reappearing between the twins.

Sunstreaker shoved him away shouting, “Watch the paint!”

Someone snickered.

“Autobot scientist, Perceptor.”

The red mustang knelt down to study the girls closer.

“Easy, Percy. We’re not dangerous,” Sydney laughed.

“To them anyway,” Claire commented.

“Percy…?” he questioned.

“It’s a nickname, just roll with it.”

“And our seekers, Windblade and Whirl,” Optimus finally finished.

The two fighter jets said nothing.

Miko pointed at them, “Red and blue is Windblade, blue is Whirl,” she clarified for everyone.

Everyone nodded.

  
Mikaela stepped away from Bumblebee to address Optimus, “Why are you here?”   
  
“We are here looking for the AllSpark. And we must find it before Megatron,” Optimus answered her.   
  
“Megawhat?” Sam asked.   
  
Optimus activated a holographic version of his memories.

“Story time!” Prue grinned.

“I think that was a new record of her being silent,” Sydney whispered as she moved to stand beside Annabeth.

“Shh,” Annabeth told her.

Sydney rolled her eyes, “We’ve seen this like a hundred times already, Chief.”

“Our planet was once a powerful empire. Peaceful and just. Until we were betrayed by Megatron, leader of the Decepticons. All who defied them were destroyed. Our war finally consumed the planet, and the All Spark was lost to the stars,” Optimus narrated the memories.   
  
Hologram Megatron growled.   
  
“Megatron followed it to Earth, where Captain Witwicky found him.”   
  
Hologram Megatron growled again.   
  
“Oh- My grandfather,” Sam commented.   
  
Optimus nodded, “It was an accident that intertwined our fates,’ he then continued, “Megatron crash-landed before he could retrieve the Cube. He accidentally activated his navigation system and the coordinates to the Cube's location on Earth were imprinted on his glasses.”   
  
“How'd you know about his glasses?” Sam asked.   
  
“eBay,” Optimus replied stone faced as if it was the most serious thing he had ever said.   
  
“eBay,” Sam nodded, trying not to laugh.

Behind him Lynelle, Nadia, Claire, and Sydney were chuckling.

“Don’t make me tell you again. Shut up, all of you,” Annabeth glared.

“Yes, Chief!” Sydney mock saluted her friend.

“Sydney! Stop pissng the boss off,” Susan shouted at her sister.

“Guys, fate of the world at stake!” Miko interjected.

“Dude, we know. Remember?” Claire replied.

“Yeah Ratchet’s about to say, “If the Decepticons find the All Spark, they will use its power to transform Earth's machines and build a new army”,” Lynelle nodded.   
  
“And then Optimus will add, “And the human race will be extinguished. Sam Witwicky, you hold the key to Earth's survival”,” Sydney added, doing her best Optimus Prime impression.

“Really?” Alexis asked as she looked up at the two bots.

“Yes actually,” Ratchet responded, obviously surprised.   
  


“Indeed,” Optimus nodded, “I do not sound like that though.”

Sydney threw him an ‘oh really?’ kind of look.

  
Mikaela turned to Sam, “Please tell me that you have those glasses.”


	14. Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap)

**Hide and seek**

**Trains and sewing machines** **  
** **All those years they were here first**

****  
**Oily marks appear on walls** ****  
**Where pleasure moments hung before** **  
** **The takeover, the sweeping insensitivity of this still life**

**Hide and seek**

**Trains and sewing machines**

**(Oh, you won't catch me around here)** ****  
**Blood and tears (hearts),** **  
** **They were here first**

****  
**Mmm, what you say?** **  
** **Mm, that you only meant well?**

**Well, of course you did.** **  
** **Mmm, what you say?** **  
** **Mm, that it's all for the best?**  

**  
** ******Of course it is**

**Mmm, what you say?** **  
** **Mm, that it's just what we need?**

**And you decided this**

**What you say?** **  
** **Mmm, what did she say?**

 

Sam, Mikaela, Alexis, and Susan rode with Bumblebee back to Sam’s house. While Sydney was forced to ride with Optimus- he wasn’t too fond of her impression of him and he wanted answers as to why she and the girls knew so much- who followed Bumblebee with the other bots trailing them. And finally Annabeth and the other girls drove their vehicles behind them.

“This is so unfair,” Sydney grumbled.

“No one ever said it was,” Optimus replied through the speakers in his cab.

“My place is riding shotgun in the Impala. Not here with you!” She snapped as she crossed her arms in anger.

There was a heavy silence as Sydney glared out the windshield and Optimus drove on.

“How do you and your friends know so much about us? It almost seems like you know exactly what is coming to happen long before it actually does,” Optimus asked trying to change to subject.

“That’s because the eight of us aren’t from around here,” Sydney sighed as she uncrossed her arms to lean against the window.

“Then where are you from exactly?”

“We’re from another dimension where the year is 2017 and the Transformers are nothing but fiction. Movies, comics, cartoons, you guys started out at just a toy line believe it or not. We recently died in our dimension; that’s how we got sent here. I guess being dead in our dimension allowed for us to exist in this dimension exactly the way Primus wanted us too.”

Optimus was silent as he went over everything she had told him in his head.

“You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want too but it’s the truth. Primus killed us in our dimension so we could save your dimension with our knowledge and abilities. Hell, he even gifted us weapons and identities to come into this life with.”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you. It’s just hard to understand why Primus would do such a thing,” Optimus told her.

“Well let me know if you figure it out cause we’ve been trying to figure that out for months now,” Sydney scoffed as she crossed her arms again.

“You don’t like me much, do you?” Optimus questioned after a few minutes.

“That’s not true. I just don’t like this version of you. See I’m more into the first animated cartoon you guys showed up in rather than the live action movies that came out,” Sydney explained.

Optimus chuckled, “That’s even more confusing than the fact the Primus killed you to save Cybertronians in another dimension.”

Sydney couldn’t help but crack a smile, he did have a point.

Bumblebee pulled in the driveway while the others park along the curb near the house.

“I need you to stay here, all right? You got to stay here and you're gonna watch them,” Sam told Mikaela, Susan, and Alexis as he jumped out of Bumblebee’s passenger seat.

Mikaela nodded as she stood by the still open driver’s side door, “Okay, okay.”

“All of them. Even Sue and her family. Do you hear what I'm saying?”

  
“That’s overkill but fine,” Mikaela sighed, already knowing full well that probably only Bumblebee would listen to her.

Susan climbed over the seat to give Sam a dirty look.

“Don’t look at my like that I’m currently trying to rebuild my trust in you. Five minutes, all right?

The three girls sighed as they headed out into the street to babysit.   
  
“Thanks for staying on my path,” Ron greeted Sam.   
  
“Oh, yeah. No, no, Dad. Hey! The, oh, the path. I'm sorry. I forgot about the path. I'm gonna sweep the whole thing right now. How about that?” Sam responded as he literally ran into the door to keep his father inside.   
  
“You know, I buy half your car-”   
  
Sam nodded, “Yeah.”   
  
“Then I bail you out of jail and then I just decided to do all your chores.”   
  
“The chores. Oh,” Sam whispered.   
  
“Yeah. Life is great, huh?” Ron asked.   
  
“Life, well, life is fantastic, is how good it is. It's so-” Sam looked behind him to see Optimus transforming in the middle of the street, “Oh, the trash cans. Sorry, Dad. I'm gonna do the trash cans now.”   
  
“No, no, I don't want you to strain yourself,” Ron said as he tried to go outside.   
  
Sam slammed the door shut again, “No, don't, I won't strain myself, Dad.”   
  
“I'll do it. Come-”   
  
“It would hurt my feelings if you do it,” Sam lied.   
  
“You sure? I don't mind, I don't mind, I promise…” Ron tried again.   
  
“No, no, no, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do the trash cans and I'm gonna scrape the grill and I'm gonna, I'm gonna sweep up the whole-” Sam saw Optimus stepping to the yard out of the corner of his eye, “Uh, house. Right now.”

  
“Tonight, right now?” Ron asked.   
  
“Right now,” Sam agreed.   
  
Bumblebee poked his head around the house, starting Sam.

“Shh, shh shh,” the bot whispered.   
  
Sam shifted to block the Autobots from his father’s view, “The- uh- I love you. God, I love you just so much right now.”   
  
“You know, Mom wanted me to ground you. You're three minutes late,” Ron informed his son.   
  
“Right? Oh, well, just another thing you did for me, Dad, because you're such a swell guy.”   
  
Bumblebee made quiet electronic sounds.   
  
Ron suddenly eyed Sam suspiciously causing Sam too start to internally panic.

“Where’s Sue? She’s still supposed to be staying with us,” Ron asked.

Susan ran up, laughing with a huge- fake- smile on her face as she hugged Sam from behind.

“Sorry, I was on the phone with my sister,” She apologized as she looked at Ron.

“That’s fine, Sue. Did everyone find a place to stay?”

“Yes. Sydney’s staying with the wife and daughter of her childhood friend while he’s out on deployment, Lynelle chose to sleep in the Impala, and the others are staying at a motel in the next city over,” Susan smiled.

“Well if something falls through we do have a couch and a few sleeping bags,” Ron told her.

“Thank-you so much for everything.”

“Alright, goodnight you two,” Ron waved as he retreated back into the house.

  
“Alright, I love you! Sleep good, handsome man!” Sam called after him.

He and Susan sighed as they relaxed briefly only to turn and see all of the Autobots in the yard.

“What are you doing? What are you doing? No, watch the path! Watch the path! Watch the- please, please, please,” Optimus accidentally stepped back onto the fountain that stood in the middle of the path, “No, no, wait. No, no, no! Oh, no!”

  
Optimus picked up his foot to see the broken fountain before putting it back down, “Oh- oops. Sorry. My bad.”   
  
“Oh, I- you couldn't- You couldn't wait for five- you couldn't wait for five minutes? I told you to stay! Just stay! God!” Sam exclaimed before he ran over to meet Mikaela, Alexis, and the other girls.   
  
“I told you to watch them. I told you.”   
  
Mikaela put her hands on her hips, “Okay, you know what? They seem to be in a little bit of a rush.”

Mojo barked as he ran out of the house and straight up to Ironhide.

Claire shot forward and scooped up the dog before he could mark his territory on the robot’s foot.   
  
The other girls fanned out, trying to keep the Autobots in some semblance of quiet and out of trouble.

  
“Alright. Whoa- ah. Okay, okay. Shut up and go hide!” Sam whisper-yelled as he ran into the house, Mojo now in arm.   
  
Optimus sighed in annoyance that a human teenage boy was telling them what to do, “Just hurry.”   
  
Bumblebee gave Optimus a questioning electronic squeal.   
  
Optimus nodded in agreement, “Autobots, recon.”   
  
“No, no, no! No recon!” Annabeth shouted as quietly as she could.

The Autobots stopped their movement to stare at the human woman.

“Prime?” Prowl questioned.

Optimus sighed again, “And why not?”

“Because we know things you don’t,” Sydney reminded him.

His shoulders dropped in defeat, “Autobots, fall back.”

“Should I go help him? I mean I know where they are already,” Susan asked Annabeth.

“The timeline keeps shifting so they might not be there,” Annabeth told her, “Hang out here for a bit and then we’ll send you in with Mikaela. Everyone else, stay with your counterpart and one other bot to keep them out of trouble. Sydney cover Sunny for Sue. Prue you handle the bots not covered.”

The girls nodded and ran over to their bots.

Annabeth with Optimus.

Lynelle with Bumblebee and Windblade.

Sydney with Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.

Claire with Ironhide and Whirl.

Nadia with Jazz and Prowl.

Miko with Ratchet and Perceptor.

Prue with Mirage.

Susan, Alexis, and Mikaela stood off to the side talking for awhile before they nodded and ran over to Annabeth and Optimus.

Optimus agreed to lift the three of them up to Sam’s window.

  
“Time is short,” Optimus said to get his attention.

Sam looked over to see Mikaela starting to climb in the window.

  
Mikaela jumped in first, “They really want those glasses,” she said before she helped Susan and Alexis climb in.

  
“What are you doing?” Sam asked.

  
“We’re gonna help you,” Mikaela told him as she walked further into the room.

Sam looked after her, “Okay I guess.”

  
“Please hurry,” Optimus said as he looked in the window.

  
Sam soon started just throwing things in frustration causing the girls to pause and look up.

“Okay. Yeah, no, no. It's definitely gone.”   
  
“What do you mean?” Alexis asked.

  
“My glasses were in the bag. They were in the backpack and now the backpack isn't here,” Sam explained.

  
“Well, then there’s about to be a lot of pissed off aliens. So what do you gonna do?” Mikaela demanded.

  
“So what I think you should do is you should- you should check this whole section here and Alexis you look on those shelves,” Sam told her as he gestured to a section of his room, “Sue you-“

“I can look in the rest of the house if you want,” she offered immediately.

“That’s good. Mom and dad won’t suspect anything if you go look,” Sam nodded as he started to look around his room again.

Susan sighed sadly before she turned and headed out into the rest of the house.

➖➖➖

Susan looked up from under the desk in the office at the sound of a lot of transforming.

She ran to the window and stuck her head out the window to see the land based Autobots in their altmodes.

  
“No. No. No. No no no. This isn't hiding. This isn't hiding. This is my backyard, not a truck stop. Oh God. Oh!” Sam said from his window as he, Alexis, and Mikaela looked out.

Susan watched as they went back inside only for Optimus to transform and stand by the window.

  
“Sam? Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam! He's back,” Mikaela could be heard saying as she tried to get Sam’s attention.

Susan decided to let them be and ducked back inside to continue her search.

“God, this is like playing hide and seek in a place you don’t know with a kid who knows every nook and cranny,” she complained as she got back down on her hands and knees to look under the other furniture in the office.

➖➖➖

Back outside the others weren’t having any more luck with their Autobot babysitting than Susan was with her game of hide and seek.

  
“Move!” Jazz growled as he shoved Ratchet back.   
  


“Get away!” Ratchet hissed back.   
  
“What's the matter with you? Can't you be quiet? He wants us to be quiet,” Optimus complained to his team.   
  
Ratchet turned and walked away from Jazz only to walk straight into the powerlines before anyone could stop him. He fell to the ground with a, “Hmph. Ow!”   
  
“Earthquake! Move, move, move, move, move! Earthquake! Judy! Judy, get under the table! Move it! Duck and cover right now!” Ron yelled from downstairs.

Susan was clinging to the railing to keep from falling down the stairs.   
  
“How did you get over there so fast?” Judy questioned her husband.

“Wow! That was tingly!” Ratchet said as he sat up. Ironhide walked over to check on the medic, “Ooh! You gotta try that!”

  
“Yeah. That looks fun,” Ironhide replied gruffly as he walked away.

The lights shut off and Susan bounded back up the stairs and into Sam’s room. He locked to door behind her just as Ron and Judy started down the hallway.   
  
Susan hid Mikaela and Alexis behind a set of shelves while Sam yelled out the window at the Autobots. Ratchet was shining his search light in one of the windows.

  
“Listen, we got a major issue in here. What's with the light? You gotta stop the light. What's going on? Turn it off. You gotta tell him to shut it off. Shut it off.”   
  
“Sam, are you in there? How come the door's locked? You know the rules. No doors locked in my house!” Ron shouted as he banged on the door.   
  
“You know he'll start counting if you don't open the door!” Judy added.   
  
“One more chance. Five…”   
  
“Oh, dear.”

“Hide, Sue!” Sam said all panicked as he ran past her.   
  
“Four. It's coming off the hinges, pal.”   
  
“He's counting! Sam, just open the door.”

“Me hide? I’m supposed to be here. It’ll be weird if I’m not here!” Susan told Sam as she walked after him.   
  
“Three.”   
  
“Oh, my.”

“Fine then act natural,” Sam sighed as he headed towards the door.

Susan jumped onto the bed and motioned for Mikaela and Alexis to back up further out of view.   
  
“Two.”   
  
“He's counting.”   
  
“Stand back.”

Sam opened the door.   
  
“What's up? What's with the bat?” he asked.   
  
“Who were you talking to?” Ron asked.   
  
Sam looked at his confused, “I'm talking to you.”   
  
“Why are you so sweaty and filthy?” Judy demanded as she looked him up and down.

Covered in dirt and sweat, clothes disheveled.   
  
“I'm a child. You know, I'm a teenager,” Sam lied.   
  
“We heard voices and noises and we thought maybe you were-”   
  
“Yeah, it doesn't matter what we thought. What was that light?” Ron cut her off as he pushed into Sam’s room.   
  
“No, what light? What? There's no light, Dad! There's no light!” Sam argued as he let his mother in.   
  
“The light!”   
  
“You got two lights in your hand! That's what it is.”   
  
“There was light under the door.”   
  
“No, maybe it bounced- look, you can't- you can't just bounce into my room like that. You got to knock. You got to communicate.”

Susan facepalmed as Sam started to outwardly panic and ramble. She just prayed that her family would hide the bots in time.

“We did- We knocked for five minutes,” Ron tried.   
  
“I'm a teenager,” Sam continued.   
  
“We knocked!” Judy exclaimed.   
  
“You didn't knock. You were screaming at me, okay?” Sam told them.   


“No.”   
  
“This is repression, what you're doing here. You're ruining my youth, okay?” Susan just wanted Sam to shut up.

She stood and walked over to try and calm him.   
  
“Oh, for Pete's sakes! You are so defensive! Were you two... having sex?” Judy questioned.

  
Everyone stopped talking to stare at her. Mikaela and Alexis gave each other a concerned look.

“Judy-“ Ron started.

  
“Were we having- No, Mom!” Sam exclaimed.

  
“Holy hell,” Susan groaned as she walked away with her hands covering her face.

  
“It's okay,” Judy soothed.

  
“No, we don’t do that!” Sam yelled.

  
“That's not something for you to bring up. That's between Sam and Sue, okay?” Ron spoke to her.

  
“I mean-“

  
“We don’t do that,” Susan complained.

“You don't have to call it that word if that makes you uncomfortable. You can call it... Our happy time or-“ Judy started.   
“Happy time?” Sam and Ron whispered.

  
“Our special alone time…”

  
Ron dropped him hands in defeat, “Stop.”

  
“Judy, please,” Susan pleaded.

  
“Judy, stop.”

  
“Together,” Judy finished.

“Mom, you can't come in and-“ Sam wearied.

  
Judy started apologizing, “I'm sorry. It's just been a weird night. I've had a little bit to drink.”

Ron stepped around Sam and Susan to keep looking through Sam’s room.

“No, no, Dad.”

“Yeah, well, we saw a light,” Ron was saying, “I don't know where it was, but we saw it.”

  
Optimus looked in the bathroom window, “Oh, parents,” he stepped back causing the house to shake again.

  
Outside the girls grabbed onto whatever was nearest to keep upright.

“Not this again,” Nadia complained.

  
“Earthquake! It's another one! Another earthquake! Get in the doorway!”

  
Judy sighed as she watched Rom climb into the tub, “Okay!”

  
“Aftershock! Aftershock! Oh, I hate these.”

The lights came back on and the girls sprung into action.

“Hide!”

“Go, go, go!”

  
“Quick, hide!” Optimus ordered.

Sydney and Annabeth stood in the middle of them directing everyone on where to go.

Most of the Autobots ran around the far side of the house while Bumblebee crawled under the porch roof.

  
“Hey, the lights are back on,” Judy commented.

“Hide? What? Where? Oh!” Jazz panicked as he looked around.

  
“Come on, get out of that tub.”

“Can't you take safety seriously?”

  
“What about- oh, kay. Oh, no. Man. Man! Oh!” Jazz grabbed Annabeth- only because she was closer to him than Sydney was- and hid in part of the house that was under Sam’s window.

Optimus scooped up Sydney as he moved to lean back against the house to keep out of sight while Windblade and Whirl transformed and took to the sky.

The other girls were already hiding in the bushes and with the a few of the bots.

  
“Good Lord, this floor is filthy, Sam,” Judy complained.

  
Ron leaned out the window to look down at the yard, “Oh. Oh, no! Look at the yard. The yard is destroyed. Sheesh! Judy? Better call the city. We got a blown transformer! Power pole's sparking all over the place! Aw, man. Yard's a waste. Trashed. Gone. It's a wash. The whole yard.”   
  
“You're kidding.”   
  
Ironhide leaned around the house, “The parents are very irritating.”   
  
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Ratchet jeered behind him.   
  
“Can I take them out?” Ironhide asked as he readied his cannon.   
  
Optimus poked his head around the opposite side of the house, “Ironhide, you know we don't harm humans. What is with you?”

Sydney glared at the weapons specialist from the Autobot leader’s shoulder.

  
“Well, I'm just saying, we could. It's an option,” Ironhide replied sheepishly.

“If I had a brig I would throw you in it,” Prowl glared.

“Shut it! All of you,” Sydney scolded them.   
  
“We heard you talking to somebody, Sam. We wanna know who,” Judy insisted.   
  
“Mom, I- I told y-”   
  
Mikaela and Alexis stood and stepped out into view, “Hi. I'm Mikaela and this is Alexis. We’re uh- We’re friends of Sam and Susan's.”   
  
Judy laughed, “Gosh, you're both so gorgeous. Aren’t those the prettiest girl?”   
  
“Oh,” Ron nodded in agreement.   
  
“They could hear you talking, Mom,” Sam muttered.   
  
“Thank you,” Mikaela and Alexis smiled in unison.   
  
“Oh, my goodness. I'm sorry you had to hear our little family discussion about this-” Judy apologized.   
  
Mikaela chuckled awkwardly while Alexis faked a smile.   
  
“Sorry that we're bugging you,” Ron added.   
  
“Backpack- do you have Sam’s backpack, Judy?” Susan asked as she stepped forward again.   
  
“Come on, hon. Let's go.”   
  
Judy looked back over her shoulder as Ron urged her out of the room, “Oh, it's in the kitchen, dear.”

The four teenagers shared a look before they ran past Ron and Judy down to the kitchen.

Sam grabbed the bag and started digging through it until he found the glasses case.

“Oh, yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah,” he said as he pulled out the glasses.   
  
“Your mom's so nice,” Mikaela smiled.   
  
“I want you to distract my parents while I slip out and get these glasses to them, okay?” Sam questioned.

The girls nodded in agreement.


	15. Bad Reputation (Avril Lavigne)

**I don't give a damn 'bout my reputation** ****  
**You're living in the past it's a new generation** ****  
**A girl can do what she wants to do and that's** ****  
**What I'm gonna do** ****  
**An' I don't give a damn ' bout my bad reputation** ****  
****  
**Oh no not me** ****  
****  
**An' I don't give a damn 'bout my reputation** ****  
**Never said I wanted to improve my station** ****  
**An' I'm only doin' good** ****  
**When I'm havin' fun** ****  
**An' I don't have to please no one** ****  
**An' I don't give a damn** **  
** **'Bout my bad reputation**

 

Already knowing the preceding events the girls decided to split up and keep both the Autobots and humans alike safe.

Annabeth, Claire, Nadia, Prue and Miko went with the Autobots while Sydney and Lynelle ran inside.

Meanwhile the doorbell started to ring excessively as Simmons opened the mail slot to peer inside the house.

As Ron walked over to answer the door, Sydney, Lynelle, and Prue slipped in behind him to the kitchen.

“Syd, what are you guys doing in here?” Susan asked as she walked around the island to her sister.

“Well we’re not about to let her kid sister get kidnapped,” Lynelle answered before Sydney could.

  
“They're ripping up my rose bushes!” Judy yelled from out in the living room.   
  


Sydney moved to the door and opened it just a crack so she could look out.

Sector Seven agents everywhere.

“Shit,” she cursed as she moved further back into the room.

“Alright we have to move as calmly as possible,” Lynelle started as she motioned the group in close.

Sydney nodded, “Right. Lyn and I will wait in here while you guys go out. We’ll ambush them when we see an opening.”   
  
The four teens slowly nodded, three in fear, one following orders.

“Wait a minute or two then follow Sam out. Sam it’s perfectly fine to question what’s going on or why they’re in your house, whatever you want. Just be natural and remain calm,” Sydney instructed as she turned to focus on Sam.

“I’ll try,” Sam replied before they moved closer to the door.

After a moment Sam stepped out only to stop after a few steps at the sight of all of the agents in his house. The girls ran into his back.

Sam glanced back at his friends then out at the agents again, “What is this?” he asked.   
  
“How you doing, son? Is your name Sam?” Simmons asked, creepy smile in place as he stepped closer to the group of teens.   
  
“Yeah,” Sam nodded.

“And might one of you beautiful ladies be Susan vincent?” Simmons smiled on.

“That’s me,” Susan answered as she stepped around Alexis and Mikaela to be between them and Simmons.   
  
‘Well, I need you both to come with us.”   
  
“What?” Judy exclaimed.

Lynelle grabbed Sydney’s arms to keep her from activating her gauntlets.   
  
“Whoa, way out of line,” Ron told Simmons as he and Judy stepped between him and the kids.   
  
“Sir, I am asking politely. Back off,” Simmons said not very politely.   
  
“You're not taking my son or his best friend,” Ron glared back.   
  
“Really? You gonna try to get rough with us?” Simmons questioned.   
  
“No, but I'm gonna call the cops because there's something fishy going on around here.”   
  
Judy nodded in agreement, “Yeah.”   
  
Simmons chuckled as he bounced on his toes, “Yeah. There's something a little fishy about you, your son, your little Taco Bell dog and this whole operation you got going on here.”   
  
“What operation?” Ron demanded.   
  
“That is what we are gonna find out,” Simmons responded.   
  
“I think direct contact,” one of the agents whispered to Simmons as he offered him a device of some kind.   
  
Simmons gave him a “Really?” kind of look before he took the device and stepped closer to the family, “You two?”   
  
“Yeah?” Sam questioned hesitantly as he looked back at the kitchen door.

“Step forward, please.”   
  
Sam stepped forward and dragged a stubborn Susan with him, “Just stand?’

Simmons scanned them, his eyes wide as the needle inside shot across the meter instantly, “Fourteen rads.”

The girls in the kitchen sat poise to burst out the door.

“Bingo! Tag them and bag them!”

All hell broke loose as the agents stepped forward to detain the family and friends and the girls descended on them, pushing through everyone to stand between them.   
  
“What the hell?” Judy exclaimed.

“What do we have here?” Simmons questioned as he gestured to the two girls, “Die Hard wannabes?”

Eyes narrowed as they pulled out their weapons, Susan joining them with her staff at the ready.

“Who the hell are you three?” Ron demanded, holding Judy close.

“Help from someone much higher up,” Sydney replied as she glanced back at him.

“Oo, I’m so scared,” Simmons joked.

The agents around him laughed.

“Take them.”

Sector Seven collided with the girls.

Sydney knocked out another agent and ran over to the others.

“Run! Get out of here and find the other girls! They’ll keep you safe till we can all regroup!” she ordered.

“We’re not leaving you here to get arrested for protecting us!” Mikaela argued.

“This isn’t up for discussion or argument! Ron, Judy, you have to run and hide. Stay with friends or something but don’t come back here till Sam calls you. You three go find the girls and the Bots like I told you too.”

She rejoined the fight without another word.

“We have to trust them,” Alexis spoke.

“Why?” Judy exclaimed in disbelief.

“Because Sue and her family are from another dimension where we’re a work of fiction. They know everything that’ll happen in our world for the next 11 years. Do as Sydney said, we’ll call you when it’s safe,” Sam explained quickly.

Ron eventually nodded and dragged Judy out of the house. Sam, Mikaela, and Alexis grabbed Susan and headed out the other direction only to meet more Sector Seven agents. They were instantly arrested.

“Lyn get out! Go!” Sydney could be heard yelling from inside.

Sam, Mikaela, Susan, and Alexis found themselves being thrown into two of the waiting black SUVs.

“Sam. Sam, look!” Susan said as she stared back at the house.

The other agents came out, one carrying Sydney. She was tossed into the other SUV with Alexis.

“She got Lynelle out and ended up tazed,” she sighed as she hung her head.

“How do you know that?” Mikaela asked.

“The puncture marks are showing. That and Claire used to fight off people with a low voltage taser and a high one just in case,” Susan explained before Simmons and one of the other agents climbed in the car.

They pulled away from the Witwicky residence in silence.

“So, uh... LadiesMan two-seventeen. That is your eBay username, right?” Simmons soon asked.   


“Yeah, but, you know, it was a typo and I ran with it.” Sam shook his head as he looked up.

  
Simmons turned around with Sam’s phone in hand, “Well, what do you make of this?”   
  
“Our names- are Sam Witwicky and Susan Vincent. Whoever finds this, my car is alive, okay?” Simmons paused the recording and looked at Sam and Susan expectantly, “Is that you?”   
  
Mikaela glared over at Sam, “Yeah, that sounds like LadiesMan.”   
  
“Last night at the station, you told the officer your car transformed,” Simmons suddenly smiled, “Enlighten me.”   
  
“Well, here's what I said, okay? 'Cause this is a total misunderstanding that my car had been stolen-” Sam started.   
  
“Tsk. Really?”   
  
“From me, from my home, but it's fine now because it's back! It came back!”   
  
Mikaela immediately jumped in, “Well, not by itself.”   
  
“Well, no,” Sam shook his head.

“My sister’s friend Lynelle had borrowed it for the night and forgot to actually ask,” Susan added.   
  
“Right, because cars don't do that because that would be crazy,” Mikaela agreed.   
  
All four started laughing.   
  
“That's funny. That is so funny,” Simmons chuckled before he turned back to them again, “So what do you kids know about aliens, huh?”   
  
“Oh, you mean, like a Martian? Like what, E.T? Pfft. No,” Sam scoffed.   
  
“They’re an urban legend,” Mikaela stated calmly.

“Yeah,” Susan nodded.   
  
Simmons glared and pulled out his badge, “You see this? This is my I-can-do-whatever-I-want-and-get-away-with-it badge.”   
  
“Right,” Sam nodded fearfully.   
  
“I'm gonna lock you up forever!”   
  
“Oh, God. You know what? Don't listen to him. He's just pissy 'cause he's got to get back to guarding the mall,” Mikaela rolled her eyes.   
  
“You, in the training bra, do not test me. Especially with your daddy's parole coming up.”

Mikaela swallowed hard and looked away.   
  
“What? Parole?” Sam questioned.   
  
“It's nothing. Please, don’t press this,” Susan urged him.   
  
“Oh, grand theft auto, that ain't nothing?” Simmons all but demanded.   
  
“You know those cars my dad used to teach me to fix? Well, they- they weren't always his,” Mikaela explained as she looked out the window.   
  
“You stole cars?” Sam whispered.   
  
Mikaela looked over at him, “Well, we couldn't always afford a babysitter, so sometimes he had to take me along.

  
“She's got her own juvie record to prove it! She's a criminal. Criminals are hot! Well, that'd be a real shame if he had to rot in jail the rest of his natural life. It is time to talk!” Simmons yelled.

A metal foot dropped down in front of them causing them to crash. Two metal hands then reached in to grip the roof and lift them off the ground.

  
Simmons and the S7 Agents started shouting.

  
“Big! It's big!” Simmons shouted.

“Whoa whoa whoa whoa!”

  
“Oh- Back up, back up-“

  
“Go, go, go, go!” Mikaela yelled, trying the door so they could escape.

It wouldn’t budge.

  
“I think we're about-“ Simmons started.

  
“I can't see it! I can't see it!”

Indistinctive yelling filled the car.

“Shift your weight towards the front!”

  
“Oh God!”

The roof broke free and they fell back to the pavement.

“Alright-“ Simmons started as he looked up. Optimus tossed the roof aside and shut off his headlights, “Oh…”

“You a-holes are in trouble now,” Sam commented as he leaned forward to speak with Simmons and the agent.

“Assholes, I want to introduce you to our friend... Optimus Prime,” Susan smirked as she stood.

  
Optimus growled, “Taking the children was a bad move. Autobots, relieve them of their weapons.”

The Autobots seemed to appear from everywhere. Annabeth, Miko, Prue, Nadia, Claire, and Lynelle sat or stood on shoulders or in servos looking pissed. Every Cybertronian and human girl already had their weapons drawn.

The other Sector Seven agents jumped out of their vehicles and drew their guns to point them back.

“Freeze!” Ironhide ordered.

  
“Whoa! Whoa!” Simmons shouted.

No one stopped moving or aiming their gun at something.

“Humans do not like to listen, do they?” Windblade questioned as she eyed the humans below her.

“That sounds about right,” Claire nodded.

  
“Give me those,” Jazz said as he stepped in front of the other bots and magnetized his shield.

Every gun flew out of the hands holding them and hit the shield with a metal ‘thunk’.

  
“Whoa! Whoa!” Simmons said again as he looked around at his men, most of whom had their hands raised in surrender already.

  
Optimus knelt down to the man’s level growling.

  
Simmons awkwardly waved in attempt to hide his fear, “Hi, there.”

  
“You don't seem afraid. Are you not surprised to see us?” Optimus questioned, his face looking confused but his voice showed his underlying anger.

  
“Look, there are S7... protocols... okay? I'm not authorized to communicate with you except to tell you I- can't communicate with you,” Simmons started.

  
“Get out of the car,” Optimus interrupted sounding rather annoyed.

  
“Alright. Alright. Me? You want me to-“   
  
“Now!”

  
Everyone jumped in surprise and Simmons started to climb out of what remained of the SUV.

“Alright, alright. Get out,” Simmons told the others, “Hey. Alright, I'm... yeah, I'm getting out. I'm getting out. You see? Very nifty how you put us down without really... killing us.”

Sam, Mikaela, and Susan all jumped out of the back. Mikaela was quick to remove Susan and Sam’s handcuffs, hers having disappeared minutes after they had been placed on her.

  
“You're good with handcuffs, too, now, huh?” Sam questioned as he watched Mikaela remove Susan’s first.

As soon as Susan was free she bolted away, “Sydney!”

Optimus looked up at the sound of the name spoken with such a fear filled tone.

Everyone watched in confusion as Susan yanked open the back door of another SUV. Alexis climbed out first, already having been uncuffed by one of the agents, and helped pull a still unconscious Sydney out.

“Sydney!” Annabeth shouted as the other girls raced over.

  
Ratchet rushed over and scooped up the brunette girl.

“Big guys. Big guys with big guns, huh?” Simmons questioned as he looked around.

  
Sam, Alexis, and Mikaela stormed over to the man, “What is Sector Seven?” Sam asked, “Answer me.”

  
“I'm the one who asks questions around here. Not you, young man!” Simmons yelled back.

  
“How'd you know about the aliens?” Mikaela demanded.

“I am not at liberty to discuss-“

Alexis pushed past them to reach into his jacket pocket, “Really?”

  
“-it. Hey. You touch me, that's a federal offense,” he didn’t move though, Mirage and Prowl’s weapons at his back made sure of that.

“Do-whatever-you-want-and-get-away-with-it badge, right?” Sam chuckled as he took it when Alexis offered it to him. The three teens started looking through it together.

Simmons looked around at the Autobots, “Yeah. Brave now all of a sudden, with their big alien friend standing over there.”

  
“Where is Sector Seven?” Sam asked as he looked up at the man, Mikaela and Alexis still looking over the badge.

  
“Wouldn't you like to know?” Simmons smirked.

  
Bumblebee gave electronic squeal of disapproval as he stepped closer, unmatched something in his nether regions, and started “peeing” on Simmons’ head.

“Ey! Hey!” The man complained.

The teens burst out laughing causing Optimus to look over.

  
“Bumblebee, stop lubricating the man,” he said sternly.

  
“Get that thing to stop, huh?” Simmons said just before Bumblebee relatched himself and started complaining to Optimus.

The Autobot leader ignored him and turned to look over Ratchet’s shoulder at Sydney.

“Optimus, I am trying to take her vitals and find a way to wake her up. It will take far longer with you venting down my helm!” The medic complained loudly.

The Autobot and the humans vacated to avoid being yelled at more. They moved to handcuff the Sector Seven agents together so they couldn’t intervene with or follow their escape. It was then Mikaela chose to go get some payback against Simmons.

“All right, tough guy, take it off.”

  
“What are you talking about?” Simmons demanded.

Mikaela placed her hands on her hips, “Your clothes, all of it, off.”

  
“For what?”

  
“For threatening my dad.” She motioned to his clothing.

Sam and Lynelle walked up behind her. Beside them Prue unsheathed her sword and pointed it at him.

  
Simmons angrily started undressing, “Little lady, this is the beginning of the end of your life. You're a criminal. Uh huh. Let's face facts. It's in your gene pool.”   
  
Mikaela nodded uninterested, “Those are nice. Now back behind the pole.”

  
“Alright,” Simmons grumbled as he did as told.

She handcuffed him and one of the other agents decided to speak up.

  
“This is such a felony, what you're doing.”   
  
“I will hunt you down, okay?” Simmons threatened.

  
“He'll hunt you down,” the agent echoed.

  
Everyone turned away back towards the Autobots.

“Without any remorse!” He called after them.

  
“No remorse,” Sam agreed as he looked back at the agents.

  
Simmons then leaned over to whisper, “Okay? We have got to alert- everyone,” to the agent beside him.

  
“They already know. Speaker,” the agent responded as he showed the phone in his hand to Simmons.

Everyone looked up from loading Sydney on a gurney into the back of Ratchet’s altmode as Ironhide yelled, “Optimus! Incoming!”

He fired his cannon at the ground to slow the agents while Jazz shielded the humans. Whirl transformed and flew at the SUVs dangerously low forcing them to scatter.

“Roll out,” Optimus ordered.

Bumblebee gave an electronic squeal as he and the other Autobots transformed. Susan stayed with Sam, Mikaela, and Alexis while Lynelle, Nadia, and Prue sped away with the girls’ vehicles. Jazz and Prowl followed them. Annabeth jumped in with Bumblebee leaving the other girls to spread with the remaining Autobots to ensure everyone got out.

“Up you get,” Optimus said to the teens as his team sped away.

  
Sam and Mikaela grunted as they climbed up and then turned to help Susan and Alexis up as well.

  
A helicopter flew towards them and Optimus took off running down the street.

“Get off the main streets!” Susan shouted over the sounds of the copter and traffic at the Cybertronian from his shoulder.

Mikaela clung to her to ensure the younger girl wouldn’t fall.

Optimus nodded and changed his course to duck into one of the alleys. The helicopter passed and they headed back to the river.

“Under the bridge!” Alexis advised him knowing full well that they stuck out like a sore thumb anywhere else.

Optimus pulled himself up under one of the bridges just as another helicopter flew towards them, “Easy, you four.”

One of the helicopters suddenly flew under the bridge causing Mikaela to get knocked free. Susan lept after her and Sam reached out to grab her just as her hand wrapped around Mikaela’s ankle.

“Nnh!” Optimus grunted as he tried to hold himself up.

  
“No! No! No, Sue! Sam, don't drop us! Sam, don't! Sam, don't! She’s slipping! Sam, Sue’s slipping!” Mikaela’s yells were mostly drowned out by the nearby helicopters.

“Hold on!” Optimus told them as his legs started to slip.

  
“Aaaaah!” Mikaela yelled as Susan’s wrist slipped out of Sam’s hold and they free fell towards the concrete and river below.

  
“NO!” Sam screamed only to be pitched off Optimus’ shoulder alongside Alexis seconds later as the Autobot’s legs slipped free.

Optimus gave his own yell as he swung his legs back up towards the other bridge support. Alexis and Sam fell on to his foot and dropped much slower toward the concrete.

Mikaela and Susan splashed down into the river as Annabeth bailed out of Bumblebee so the Autobot could catch Sam and Alexis.

The glasses unknowingly fell out of Sam’s pocket to the concrete.

Annabeth picked herself up and ran over to pull Mikaela and then Susan out of the frigid water.

  
“Sam!” Mikaela shouted as they started towards Sam, Alexis, and Bumblebee.

Before they got there Bumblebee ran in between them and a metal cable wrapped around his wrist instantly.

“Stop! Stop! Wait! No!” Sam yelled.

Another cable wrapped around his ankle as any yells were swallowed by the circling or hovering helicopters.

Mikaela gasped and took off running towards Bumblebee.

He motioned with his free servo for her to keep back knowing she wouldn’t hear him otherwise only for another cable to wrap around that wrist too.

He fell to the ground at the fourth cable.

“Noooo!” Mikaela shouted as Annabeth grabbed her from behind and yanked her away.

Bumblebee was carrying on with electronic screaming, shouting, and crying at the sight of his new friends.

  
“No! Stop! Stop!” Sam yelled a armed Sector Seven agents ran towards them.

  
“Get down on the ground!”

  
“Get down! Get down!”

  
“What? Okay,” Sam said as he and Alexis knelt down complyingly.

“Nnh!” Mikaela grunted as she was forced to the concrete.

  
“Hah- Look, he's not fighting back!” Sam shouted as he laid down.

  
Bumblebee could just barely be heard giving off painful electronic squealing.

  
“Freeze it!” Someone shouted as they started cryofreezing Bumblebee.

“Stop hurting him!” Alexis tried.

“Annabeth,” Susan pleaded as she looked over at the older woman.

“We have to try,” Annabeth nodded as she unlatched her pouches and selected a pair of brass knuckles.

“Don't let him move! I got him down here!”

Susan glared as she pulled out her staff and expanded it. She nodded at Annabeth and they charged the agents freezing Bumblebee with a shared war cry.

  
Sam shoved the agents off him before they could cuff him and ran over to help. He stole of of the freeze guns only to quickly get tackled and handcuffed.

Meanwhile Susan started just swinging out of anger and Annabeth took a more strategic approach, slashing the tubing of the cryofreeze tanks and taking out anyone who got in her way.

Alexis and Mikaela watched in horror as Susan was tripped and tackled by three agents and Annabeth was knockout from behind by another.

They were handcuffed and dragged to the awaiting SUVs along with Sam and the other girls.

  
“NO!” Mikaela screamed as she kicked and fought to break free.

Someone grabbed her legs and she was thrown in an empty backseat.

  
Behind her Simmons stood awaiting Sam and Susan, “Happy to see me again? ...Put them in a car with his little criminal friend. Put that one with the other girl,” the three were loaded up and Simmons finally turned away from Bumblebee, “I want that thing frozen and ready for transport!”

The other Autobots and girls regrouped on the bridge too late and could only watch as the taillights faded in the distance.

  
Jazz transformed first, “Hang back. Let me check it out.”

He climbed down under the bridge to Optimus who moved away from him in almost pained shame.

“Optimus, are we just gonna stand here and do nothing?”

  
“There's no way to free Bumblebee without harming the humans.” Sadness crept into Optimus’ voice as he spoke.

  
“But it's not right! He-“ Jazz tried arguing.

  
“Let them leave.”

Jazz climbed back up and shrugged at his awaiting teammates.

“Great. Now what?” Mirage questioned.

“We head to Griffith Observatory and plan our next move.”

“Sydney!” The girls chorused.

The 19 year old was climbing out of the back of Ratchet’s altmode despite the medic’s protests. She grunted in pain as she was tackle hugged by her friends.

“That kinda hurts guys,” she managed.

They all slowly released her laughing away their concerns.

“Why there?” Sunstreaker spoke up, interrupting the once touching moment.

“And why do you get to call the shots?” Sideswipe added.

“Because that’s what the movie says,” Sydney replied before walking away.

“Sydney is automatically in charge whenever Annabeth is gone.” Prue spoke monotonously earning matching concerned looks from the twins.

“Movie?” Windblade questioned rather curiously.

“Oh, by the way, all of you are fictional where we come from,” Miko smiled.

“I have never been more confused in my entire existence,” Perceptor sighed.

“I’m sure we’ll fully explain it to you all one day,” Sydney laughed, “Optimus! Let’s go!” She then shouted down to the presumably sulking Cybertronian.


	16. Wear Me Out (Skylar Grey)

**Smart ass little girl, always on the run** ****  
**Playin' with fire and daddy's gun** ****  
**Fallin' in love on stolen wine** ****  
**Where did we go wrong, my foolish child?** ****  
****  
**She said, I'm too young to drink** ****  
**Too green to think** ****  
**You say these things and it wears me out** ****  
**Too young, too frail but sometimes I feel** ****  
**Like old blue jeans** **  
** **'Cause you wear me out, you wear me out**

 

Lynelle, Claire, Nadia, and Prue sat on the concrete steps of the observatory looked at a California map Prue had picked up from a nearby convenience store. Sydney sat shirtless on the flat above them while Miko cleaned her wounds and the Autobots stood a few yards from them her waiting for Optimus.

“Damn! That hurts like hell, Miko. Don't you have anything you can give me to numb the area,” Sydney complained.

“You know I don’t. Shut up and keep drinking from that bottle so I can stitch you up,” Miko glared as she pressed the cleaning pad harder into the taser wound.

Sydney yelped in pain as she jumped a little.

“Yeah, then come help us, Miss Stand-In-Leader,” Nadia agreed.

Sydney ignored her friends as she took another swig from the bottle of Jack Daniel’s Lynelle had bought her. She then turned to the Autobots to demand, “Where the hell is he? He said he would be here at 10.”

They all seemed too scared or unsure to give her a straight answer. The girls sighed in defeat. With Susan and Annabeth in danger there was little to no chance Sydney was going to be level headed and actually plan like she should.

“Maybe he got lost,” Lynelle suggested.

Sydney tossed her a glare before letting out a hiss as Miko started to stitch her up. Whirl giggled at the sound while Ratchet eyed the two girls with concern.

Optimus drove up fifteen minutes later.

  
“Uh oh… Sydney’s gonna be pissed,” Claire whispered as the Cybertronian walked towards them, glasses in servo.

Sydney didn’t look up right away, now engrossed in finishing the whiskey. 

“Do your thing, Big Guy,” Nadia greeted him.

“Are you sure this will work?” he questioned.

Prue nodded while Lynelle, Nadia, and Claire gave him thumbs up.

“Prime, they haven’t been wrong yet,” Prowl spoke up.

“Fire it up, Optimus,” Jazz encouraged the leader.

  
Optimus shot beans from his optics through the glasses causing a holographic projection of Earth to appear. The Hoover Dam was marked with a glowing spot like someone had stuck a thumbtack at its location.

“The code... The code on these glasses indicates the Allspark is two hundred and thirty miles from here,” Optimus interpreted for the Autobots.

  
Ratchet looked around at the team, “I sense the Decepticons are getting ready to mobilize.”

  
“They must know it's here, as well,” Ironhide nodded as he walked over to the medic.

  
“What about Bumblebee?” Windblade questioned.

“Yeah, we can't just leave him to die!” Whirl added.

“He might become some human experiment.” Preceptor shuddered at the thought.

  
“He'll die in vain if we don't accomplish our mission. Bumblebee is a brave soldier. This is what he would want. We cannot waste time rescuing people, we need to find the Allspark,” Optimus told them all.

Sydney’s harsh laughter echoed against the stone walls and pillars around them.

“What’s so humorous about that, fleshy?” Sunstreaker demanded.

The brunette looked back at her medic. Miko nodded and quickly finishing off her stitching before cutting Sydney free.

“You don’t know a damn thing,” Sydney seethed.

“I’m unsure what you mean,” Optimus informed her.

She stood, angrily yanking her shirt back on, and started back towards the bots.

“I mean, you’re pretty stupid for having been an archivist at Iacon’s Hall of Records. Now matter how close you are to Bumblebee in this iteration, you don’t know that that’s what he wants. Just like I don’t know if Annabeth wants us to rescue them. Or if Susan is scared senseless. Hell, none of us even know if what we know about this universe and all of you is still accurate at this point. But what I do know is that those agents took my best friend and my little sister. Who, let me remind you, were forced to the ground at gunpoint for doing what no one else would and taken away in handcuffs. Of course I also know Annabeth can take care of herself and will do whatever she has to to ensure everything goes exactly how it’s supposed too. But I am all Susan has!”

A few bots couldn’t help but step back while others seemed unsettled by the small human’s sudden rage.

Sydney stormed closer and closer to the Autobot Commander, “All her life Susan had everything and everyone just handed to her like she was royalty but she gave it all away for me! She showed up on my doorstep and told me she knew how our parents treated me and how they lied to her about everything! She told me that not only does she know that I love her but that she loves me too and was grateful that I was strong enough to survive on my own for so long because now she could finally get to know her big sister! So Optimus Prime, tell me one more time that we’re not going to save them!” In response to her anger her gauntlets sprung to life around her arms, all on their own.

“Syd, no!” Lynelle shouted as the girls leapt up and ran over.

Claire and Lynelle each grabbed an arm to hold the brunette back.

“I dare you!” Sydney yelled up at the Cybertronian and she wrestled against her friends.

“Sydney, that’s enough!” Claire barked.

Not wanting to hurt them or rip her stitches, Sydney turned on her heels, growling as she stormed down to the parking lot.

“She seems abnormally strong for a human girl her age,” Ratchet commented off handedly.

The girls looked among themselves, before Lynelle looked up at the medic, “Well I’ve known her the longest and she’s always been that strong.”

“How peculiar,” Preceptor mused.

  
“Optimus, why are we fighting to save the humans?” Ironhide questioned, he stepped forward and gestured to Sydney in the distance as an example, “They're a primitive and violent race.”

Optimus was staring after at the girl sadly, “Were we so different?” He looked up at his team as he continued, “They're a young species. They have much to learn. But I've seen goodness in them. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. You all know there's only one way to end this war. We must destroy the Cube. If all else fails, I will unite it with the Spark in my chest.”

Any bot who had been sitting stood and everyone gaped at him.

  
“That's suicide. The Cube is raw power, it could destroy you both,” Ratchet exclaimed, worry thick in his metallic voice.

“A necessary sacrifice to bring peace to this planet. We cannot let the humans pay for our mistakes…” Optimus sighed as he looked down at the five girls at his feet. After a moment he looked back up at his team, “It's been an honor serving with you all.”

“What now?” Nadia sighed.

“We ask Miss Stand-In-Leader for orders like we’re supposed too,” Claire shrugged.

“You think she’s calm enough to be rational and actually lead us after that show?” Miko raised the question.

“Sure,” The others chorused.

They headed down to the parking lot followed by the Autobots.

“Orders?” Lynelle requested as the girls walked up behind Sydney.

The brunette turned around to face her friends. They smiled at her encouragingly.

“Really? After all of that you still want me to lead?”

“Well, Annabeth would kill us if we didn’t-” Prue elbowed Naida to shut her up.

Prue offered Sydney a nod as she spoke, “Of course we do, Sydney. And not only now, I sense you may have to lead us into battle.”

“We head towards the Hoover Dam, hopefully the others will meet us halfway. Let’s move out!” Sydney told them.

“Booyah!” Nadia yelled as she fist bumped Claire.

Sydney was handed the map as she headed for Optimus while the other girls split off to their counterparts alt modes.

“Autobots, roll out!” Optimus ordered as he pulled out of the parking lot.

  
“We rolling!” Jazz cheered as they sped off towards the Hoover Dam.


	17. We Come Running (Youngblood Hawke)

**Days go by** ****  
**Feeling broke and tired** ****  
**Remember** ****  
**Always remember** ****  
****  
**The sound, the sound, the sound** ****  
**When we come running** ****  
**The sound, the sound, the sound** ****  
**When we come running** ****  
****  
**Headed for the open door** ****  
**Tell me what you're waiting for** ****  
**Look across the great divide** ****  
**Soon they're gonna hear** ****  
**The sound, the sound, the sound** ****  
**When we come running** ****  
**Never go where we belong** ****  
**Echoes in the dead of dawn** ****  
**Soon they're gonna know** ****  
**The sound, the sound, the sound** **  
** **When we come running**

  
Susan sat between Sam and Mikaela in the helicopter they had been placed in. Maggie and Glen climbed in opposite them and they were off in an awkward silence.

“So…” Sam started.   
  
“What did they get you for?” Maggie asked.   
  
“Uh- I bought a car. Turned out to be an alien robot,” Sam explained.

“Our friend Alexis and I just kinda got sucked up into the madness,” Mikaela continued.

“And me and seven other girls came from another dimension where this is all fictional,” Susan finished.

  
Glen could only manage to mouth 'Wow’.   
  
Sam looked at Maggie and shrugged, “Who knew?”  
 

The helicopters landed and they were unloaded into more black SUVs.

A short drive later they were pulling up to the top of the Hoover Dam. Everyone climbed out and headed over to the wall to look over the edge of the dam.

“Let’s move!” someone ordered as the civilians were corralled down towards the entrance.

  
“Team attention! Present arms!” Lennox ordered as his team stood at attention and salute the Secretary of Defense as he approached.   
  
Keller stopped in front of Lennox, “At ease. Captain, Sergeant. Got your intel. Excellent work.”   
  
“Thank you, sir. What about the gunships?” Lennox asked.   
  
“They're being retrofitted with sabot rounds now. If they hit us again, we'll be ready for them. But, uh, it won't do us much good if we can't get world communications back up,” Keller informed him.

Sam, Mikaela, Susan, and Alexis walked past them towards Simmons. This caught Lennox’s attention.

“Excuse me, sir,” He said as he stepped around Keller, “Susan?”   


Susan paused and turned around as Lennox jogged over.

“You’re Susan, Sydney’s younger sister, right?” he questioned.

“Yeah,” Susan nodded.

“Where is she? She said she would see me and my buddy Epps here. Is she alright? What happened to you?” Lennox rattled off.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Everything’s fine. Sydney should be on her way here. And I got basically kidnapped with my friends over there but it’s all good because Annabeth is here too.”

“Annabeth?” Lennox questioned.

Annabeth stepped up behind the man, “That would be me.”

Lennox turned around to come face to face with the brunette. Her brown eyes shone brightly despite her pounding headache. Her long ashy brown hair was also down for once to try and reduce the pain.

“Hey, Sue, Annabeth, do you guys need anything? Simmons is offering peace gifts!” Mikaela called over.

“An ice pack and a bottle of aspirin. My head feels like it was bashed off the concrete,” Annabeth answered.

“That’s because is was, Beth,” Susan whispered as she bounced on her heels.

“Whoa, why’s that?” Epps questioned as he walked over.

“Them,” Susan glared as she nodded her head towards a group of armed Sector Seven agents who were standing near the entrance, watching the civilians and soldiers in silence. Lennox and Epps turned to look at the agents as Susan continued, “They tackled me and straight up knocked Annabeth out cold. She just woke up in the helicopter that brought us in.”

“That’s kinda extreme,” Epps commented.

“Understatement. Are you alright?” Lennox asked.

Annabeth let her “tough girl face” fall as she groaned and rubbed at her temple, “A little dizzy, definitely dehydrated, and my head is killing me.”

“Let’s go get you something for that,” Lennox said as he lead the woman away.

Epps looked over to Susan, an amused look still plastered on his face.

“What’s with the face?”

“You’ll see later I’m sure,” Epps chuckled before he lead the teen into the dam.

Simmons and Banachek lead the group along the base of the dam towards the entrance to Sector Seven.

“Alright, here's the situation. You've all had direct contact with the NBEs,” Simmons started.   
  
Epps held up his hand to cut the man off, “NBEs?”   
  
“Non-Biological Extraterrestrials. Try and keep up with the acronyms.” Simmons glared as he kept walking.   
  
Banachek sighed and shook his head, “What you're about to see is totally classified.”

  
As the group entered the first hanger they couldn’t help but stare up at a frozen Megatron. Sector Seven technicians chattered indistinctly all around them.   
  
“Dear God. What is this?” Keller breathed as they came to a stop before the Decepticon.   
  
“We think when he made his approach over the north pole, our gravitational field screwed up his telemetry. He crashed in the ice, probably a few thousand years ago. We shipped him here to this facility in 1934,” Banachek explained.   
  
“We call him NBE-One,” Simmons added.   
  
“Well, sir, I don't mean to correct you on everything you think you know, but- I mean, that's Megatron,” Sam started, rather unsure if he was overstepping his place, reaching behind him and nudging Susan to continue for him.

Susan remained frozen, wide eyed and silent, as she eyed Megatron in fear.

“He's the leader of the Decepticons and extremely dangerous, especially to be keeping so close to a populated area. Not that an unpopulated area would help any, his altmode is a Cybertronian based jet considering he never encountered anything living much less our technology after he crashed,” Annabeth informed them as she stared up at the Cybertronian. She shivered a bit before shrugging off her fear, putting on a brave face for Susan’s sake.

  
“He's been in cryostasis since 1935,” Banachek said before he turned to Sam, “Your great-great-grandfather made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind.”   
  
Simmons stepped between them in an attempt to reassert his “dominance”, “Fact is, you're looking at the source of the modern age. The microchip, lasers, spaceflight, cars, all reverse-engineered by studying him. NBE-One. That's what we call it.”

Sam nodded, unamused, as he stepped back beside Susan and Alexis.   
  
“And you didn't think the United States military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?” Keller demanded.   
  
“Until these events, we had no credible threat to national security,” Banachek defended.

“Well you got one now,” Keller told him, rather unamused.   
  
Lennox stepped up beside Annabeth, “So why Earth?”   
  
“It's the Allspark.” Mikaela spoke up only when no one else would.   
  
Keller and the group turned to her, “Allspark? What is that?”   
  
Mikaela looked around unsure before she sighed, “They came here looking for this sort of cube looking object they call the Allspark. Anyway, Megatron, who is basically one giant death omen, wants to use the Allspark to transform human technology and take over the universe.”

Sam nodded, “Right, that’s their plan.”

  
“And you're sure about that?” Simmons questioned.   
  
“Yeah…” there was a pause before realization crossed over Sam’s face, “You guys know where it is, don't you?”   
  
Banachek glanced at Simmons and then Keller before he motioned with his hand, “Follow me.”   


Like some kind of twisted tour group with special access to a preview of the end of the world, the group followed him and Simmons up into an observation room high above the main floor.

  
“You're about to see our crown jewel,” Simmons announced as he let them into the room.

They filed into the room and a collective gasp of amazement could be heard as they looked down upon the Allspark. The alien cube was at least 3 stories tall and just as wide. All around it lights and walkways allowed for easy studying and data collection. It shone in the light making all the more breath taking to gaze upon.

  
“Whew,” Sam breathed.   
  
“Carbon dating puts the Cube here around ten thousand BC. The first Seven didn't find it until 1913. They knew it was alien because of the matching hieroglyphics on the Cube as well as NBE-One. President Hoover had the dam built around it. Four football fields thick of concrete. A perfect way to hide its energy from being detected by anyone or any alien species on the outside,” Banachek explained.

➖➖➖

  
Somewhere deep within Sector Seven Frenzy chattered in Cybertronian, “Allspark located.”   
  
Starscream shifted his course and headed towards the dam, “This is Starscream: All Decepticons, mobilize,” he ordered.   
  
Barricade’s engine roared to life before he raced through the crowded streets of Tranquility, “Barricade en-route.”   
  
Devastator drove through a fence at a nearby military facility, scaring and confusing the soldiers around, “Devastator reporting…”   
  
Bonecrusher came online and rolled out into traffic, “Bonecrusher rolling…”   
  
Blackout circled around as he tried to locate the other Decepticons’ locations, “Blackout incoming... All hail Megatron!”

➖➖➖

  
Maggie stared down at the Allspark before confusion fleeted across her face, “Wait, back up. You- you said the dam hides the Cube's energy,” she looked over to Annabeth, “What kind exactly?”   
  
“Good question. Follow me again,” Banachek answered as Simmons opened the door and they filed back out of the observation room.

Back down on the main floor, in the dark depths of the dam, the group was shuffled into a small room. There was a metal and glass box in the middle and what appeared to be generator controls along one wall.

“Please step inside. They have to lock us in,” Banachek told them as one of the attendants shut the heavy door behind them.

Susan jumped a little, swallowing hard as she heard the lock be activated. Alexis noticed and nudged Sam over to the girl. Sam glared back at the short haired brunette.

“Comfort your  _ best friend _ ,” Alexis hissed back.

  
Meanwhile Glen and Epps were looking at one of the bare walls.

“Oh, wow…” Glen whispered as they stared at the claw marks that lined the entire metal sheet.   
  
“What's that? Freddy Krueger done been up in here or something?” Epps questioned.   
  
“Oh, no, man. Freddy Krueger have four blades, man. That's only three. That's Wolverine! Hrr!” Glen laughed before looking over at Simmons, “Right? That's Wolverine!”   
  
Simmons stared back unamused, “That's very funny,” he turned to the rest of the group, “Anybody have any mechanical devices? BlackBerry? Key alarm? Cell phone?”

Everyone started checking their pockets.

“I got a phone,” Glen sighed as he handed his Nokia over to the man.   
  
Simmons took it, flipped it open, and placed it inside the box, “Ooh. Nokias are real nasty. You've got to respect the Japanese. They know the way of the samurai,” he slammed the door to the box shut and locked it.   
  
Maggie glanced over at Keller as protective goggles were handed out, “Nokia's from Finland,” she pointed out.   
  
“Yes, but he's, you know…” he shushed her as everyone put on their goggles, “A little strange... He's a little strange.”

  
Simmons walked around flipping giant switches, “We're able to take the Cube radiation... and funnel it into that box.”

Energy suddenly zapped Glen’s phone causing it to break apart and transform into a mini robot. Everyone let out some form of short, surprised yelps as it threw itself against the glass.

Susan jumped back, terrified of the little robot. Alexis elbowed Sam making his hand brush Susan’s. He glanced over at her fear filled expression and gently took her hand. Susan jumped a little, only to look over and smile gratefully.   
  
The mini bot chattered in Cybertronian and assorted yells.

“Mean little sucker, huh?” Simmons questioned.

  
“That thing is freaky!” Maggie exclaimed as the mini bot slammed itself up against one of the walls.

Burke, one of Lennox’s men, tapped on the glass curiously.

  
“Kind of like the itty-bitty Energizer Bunny from hell, huh?” Simmons continued as he circled the group.

  
The mini bot seemed to go psycho as it started to try and break free, shooting all of its weapons at the box’s walls.

  
Maggie gasped as it threw itself against the wall right in front of her again, the glass cracked, “Wha-“

  
The mini bot saw the crack and threw itself at the same spot.

  
Simmons sighed as he stopped beside Banachek, “Oh... He's breaking the box,” he grabbed a corded button and pressed it hard.

Everyone removed their goggles as they stared at the now dead mini bot.

The lights suddenly went out for a second before turning back on.

  
Keller turned to Simmons and Banachek, “Gentlemen, they know the Cube is here.”

The two men exchanged frightful glances.

Banachek ran over to the comm system and slammed his hand down on the button, “Banachek. What's going on?” He demanded.

  
“Well, the NBE-One hangar has lost power-“ the technician started.

Lennox and Epps exchanged a look that was a cross between fed up and scared. Annabeth noticed and nudged Lennox towards Banachek.

  
“What?”

  
“-and the backup generator is just not gonna cut it.”

  
“Do you have an arms room?” Lennox asked as he leaned over the desk to look at Banachek’s face.

  
Without question they were lead to the arms room.

  
“I'll bring security to the…” Someone was shouting as they moved through the base.   
  
“Get everyone to the NBE-One chamber now!” Banachek ordered.

The lights in a few sections went out as the power was either lost or redirected to more important sections.

“The lights are out!” Someone yelled in surprise.

“No shit Sherlock,” Alexis grumbled to Maggie as they ran with the others.   
  
“Move it! Move it! Let's go!” Lennox ordered his men along.   
  
“They're popping our generators!” Banachek explained as they ran on.   
  
“16502. We're losing pressure.”   
  
“Stand by! Set!”   
  
“We're losing pressure! The cryogenic system is failing! We're losing NBE-One!”

Susan gripped Sam’s hand harder as they listened to their possible end draw nearer.   
  
Simmons burst through the doors to the arms room and instantly pointed to a table as he grabbed a gun, “Forty millimeter sabot rounds on that table!”   
  
“That's good. Get all the ammo you got. Everything you can carry. Bring it,” Lennox told his men as they all started arming themselves, reloading their weapons, and grabbing up extra ammo.

Annabeth reached for one of the spare guns to load it only to have one of Lennox’s men stop her.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, girly. That’s no toy,” he told her.

Annabeth glared hard up at him.

“Mate,” Maggie tapped him on the shoulder, “That’s a look of hellfire and death. I would let her have that gun if I were you.”

Lennox stepped up behind Annabeth, “Let her be. She could probably take any one of us if she wanted too. I think she can handle a gun.”

The soldier nodded and stepped back.

“Just let us know if you need help or anything,” Epps said from across the room as she was handed back the gun.

Annabeth thanked him before turning to offer Lennox a smile. Lennox returned her smile just before the lights flickered on and off a few times. Everyone froze and looked around before returning to their tasks at a faster pace.

  
Sam pulled Susan along with him as he stormed up to Simmons, “You got to take me to my car,” Simmons shook his head, “You have to take me to my car. He's gonna know what to do with the Cube.”   
  
“Your car? It's confiscated,” Simmons told him as he kept loading the gun in his hands.   
  
“Then unconfiscate it,” Sam responded.   
  
“We do not know what will happen if we let it near this thing!”   
  
“You don't know-” Sam tried.   
  
“Maybe you know, but I don't know,” Simmons cut him off.

The shine of her confiscated sets of brass knuckles lying on a table across the room caught Annabeth’s attention. She shuffled away from Lennox and towards them slowly.   
  
Susan gave the man a confused look, “So you would rather sit here and wait to see what happens?”   
  
“I have people's lives at stake here you two.”

  
Fedup, Lennox grabbed Simmons by the collar and slammed him on to the hood of one of the nearby vehicles, “Take him to his car!”   
  
“Wha-”

All at once it seemed every Sector Seven agent had a gun trained on Lennox. Lennox’s team responded almost instantly by training their own guns on the Sector Seven agents.   
  
“Whoa!” The agent closest to Lennox said as he pointed his gun at the soldier.   
  
Lennox pulled out his own hand gun and returned the favor, “Drop it.”   
  
Annabeth jumped up from the floor between them, the blades of the brass knuckles dangerously close to the agent’s throat. Her other hand grabbed the surprised man’s right arm and twisted it around until he dropped his gun in pain. Burke must have felt the same way because he grunted as he used his gun to knock out two of the agents closest to him. Susan stepped in front of Sam as Mikaela tossed her her bo staff. She dropped low as she caught it and took an agent out at the legs before springing the blades free and pointing one end at another agent who had decided to step closer.

  
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Banachek exclaimed as he held up his hands.   
  
“Drop your weapon, soldier,” Simmons told Lennox, “There's an alien war going on and you're gonna shoot me?”   
  
Lennox glared over at him, “You know we didn't ask to be here.”   
  
“I'm ordering you under S7 executive jurisdiction-”   
  
“S7 don't exist!” Epps interrupted him as he glanced over his shoulder at Simmons.   
  
“Right. And we don't take orders from people that don't exist,” Lennox agreed.   
  
Simmons held up one of his hands, “I'm gonna count to five.”   
  
Lennox turned his gun on Simmons and loaded it, “Well, I'm gonna count to three. Mm?” He was breathing heavy but it was obvious he wasn’t messing around.   
  
“Simmons?” Keller spoke up.   
  
“Yes, sir?” Simmons asked as he looked over at the man.   
  
“I'd do what he says. Losing's really not an option for these guys,” Keller explained.   
  
Lennox remained unmoving, knowing full well his team and Annabeth had his back covered.

  
Simmons nodded, “Alright. Okay. Hey, you want to lay the fate of the world on the kid's Camaro? That's cool.”

Still angry, Lennox let him up and all weapons were lowered. With that Banachek lead them back out into the base.

“How did you-”

“We’re from another dimension where this world is all fictional. Three months ago you were just a character in a movie we watched,” Annabeth interrupted as Lennox ran up beside her.

Lennox had to stop walking he was so shocked.

Bumblebee’s pained electronic moaning filled their ears causing the civilians to run ahead of everyone towards the Autobot.

  
“Stand by, stand by!”

  
Sam ran in first, “No, no! Stop! You got to stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!”

Annabeth slashed the nearest cryofreeze supply hose to get the Sector Seven workers to look at them.

  
Banachek walked up behind the two to back what they were doing, “No, no, stop, stop, stop!”

  
“You got to let him go! Let him go!” Sam told them.

The freezing stopped and Bumblebee snapped his restraints with ease before he sat up.

“You okay?”

  
Bumblebee gave a short electronic noise.

“They didn't hurt you, right?” Susan asked as she stepped forward from the mostly scared crowd.

  
“Yeah!” Bumblebee exclaimed as he lowered his face mask and gave out a low electronic growl.

  
Sam tried to keep him calm, “Listen to me. The Cube is here and the Decepticons are coming.”

  
Bumblebee didn’t listen as he trained his cannon on everyone behind the three.

“No, no, don't worry about them. They're okay. Right? They're not gonna hurt you,” Sam said as he made a motion to tell Bumblebee to not pay attention to them.   
  
Lennox gave Annabeth an unsure look when she glanced back at the group to make sure they were alright.

“Just back up a little bit. He's friendly. He's fine. Okay, come on. Put the guns down. They're not gonna hurt you,” Sam tried again, “Here, come with me. I'm gonna take you to the Allspark.”

Bumblebee nodded and held out his hands, pointing to ask which way to go. Everyone seemed to let out a breath of relief at the same time.

“Follow me, Bee!” Annabeth called up to him before she lead the group out of the hanger and back towards the Allspark.

“Anyone else feel like we’re just running in circles?” Glen asked as he tried to keep up with Lennox and Epps.

“That’s because we are,” Lennox resorted.

“Oh… well that’s reassuring. Hey, if there’s a fight coming shouldn’t we be trying to conserve our energy now? Ya know, so we can fight later.”

“Only if you want to die today,” Maggie commented as she jogged past still wearing her heels.

Glen slowed in fear only for Burke to run up beside him, “You heard the lady. Run.”

“I’m running,” Glen scowled as he picked up his pace again.

➖➖➖

With Sam, Mikaela, and Alexis at his feet and everyone else watching from behind him, Bumblebee stepped up to the Allspark. He reached out to touch it and it sparked at him.

“Ah, okay, here we go. He doing something. He doing something,” Epps spoke as he shifted his weight in uncomfortable fear.

The Allspark sparked again before it began to shrink in his hands.

  
“Whoa,” Sam managed as he watched in amazement.

“I don’t remember this being this breath taking,” Susan commented to Annabeth. The older woman nodded in agreement.   
  
“Oh my God,” Mikaela breathed as the Allspark’s shrinking came to a stop with a spark.   
  
Bumblebee turned back to the soldiers, “Message from Starfleet, Captain. Let's get to it.”   
  
Lennox nodded as he jumped down off the piece of equipment he had been standing on, “He's right. We stay here, we're screwed with Megatron in the other hangar,” everyone cast the other hanger a look of fear, “Mission City is twenty two miles away. We're gonna sneak that Cube out of here and we're gonna hide it somewhere in the city.”   
  
“Good! Right!” Keller agreed.   
  
“But we cannot make a stand without the Air Force,” Lennox continued.   
  
Keller turned to Simmons, “This place must have some kind of radio link!”   
  
“Yes!” Simmons nodded excitedly.   
  
“Shortwave, CB!”   
  
“Right! Yes!”   
  
“Sir, you got to figure out some way to get word out to them. Let's move!” Lennox ordered.

The soldiers, Bumblebee, Sam, Mikaela, Alexis, Susan, and Annabeth followed him back to the main hanger.   
  
“In the alien archive, sir!” Simmons was still going on as they followed after everyone else.   
  
“The alien archive-”   
  
“There's an old army radio console,” Simmons interrupted Keller.   
  
“Will it work?” Keller asked.   
  
Simmons stopped to gesture to where the Allspark had once been, “I don't k- Anything's possible! Did you see that? Poof!” he made wild gestures with his hands as he tried to recreate what they had just witnessed.   
  
“All right, Sam, get it in the car! Mister Secretary! Get our birds in the air. When we get to the city, we're gonna find a radio, and I'll have Epps vector them in, okay?” Lennox was saying as everyone rushed around.

Sam urshered Alexis and Susan into Bumblebee’s altmode as Mikaela climbed in the driver’s seat.   
  
“Affirmative!” Keller shouted as he ran after Simmons, Maggie, and Glen to find the radio.   
  
“Warning! NBE One cryo-tainment failing.”   
  
“Check that backup system!”   
  
“The cryo's failing! You got to bump up the cryo! The cryo's failing!”   


Bumblebee drove out of the base while Annabeth ran alongside Lennox and Epps to get their team back to the vehicles that had been in the arms room.

  
“Set a perimeter around the yellow vehicle!” Lennox ordered just before they drove out to meet Bumblebee.


	18. Daughters of Darkness (Halestorm)

**We came to battle baby** ****  
**We came to win the war** ****  
**We won’t surrender** ****  
**Till we get what we're lookin for** ****  
**We're blowing out our speakers** ****  
**There goes the neighbourhood** ****  
**A little scissor happy** ****  
**Little misunderstood** ****  
****  
**We can turn you on** ****  
**Or we will turn on you** ****  
****  
**Daughters of darkness** ****  
**Sisters insane** ****  
**A little evil** ****  
**Goes a long, long way** ****  
**We stand together** ****  
**No we're not afraid** ****  
**We'll live forever** ****  
**Daughters of darkness** ****  
**Daughters of darkness**  
  


“Cube's okay?” Sam asked as they drove on.   
  
“Yeah, it's fine,” Alexis nodded.   
  
“Put the seat belt on it,” Sam told her as he moved his finger in a circle.

“No,” Alexis and Susan responded in unison.

  
➖➖➖

“Your team seems to t rust you despite your doubts,” Optimus spoke.

“My  _ friends _ . We only recently received the title of “Team”. And yes, yes they do,” Sydney replied as she continued plotting their course on the map.

“My apologies. Trust is an important thing to have when leading a team.”

“They’re not mine to lead,” Sydney mumbled as she laid the map on the bench seat to get a better look at the area surrounding them.

“How is your wound holding up?” Optimus questioned after a few minutes.

Sydney sighed as she sat back on her heels, “It’s fine, thank-you,” she went to look back at the map again to make sure they were headed the right way when she noticed an all too familiar yellow Camaro racing towards them, military vehicles trailing behind it.

“There they are!” she exclaimed as she sat down properly and pointed ahead of them.

➖➖➖

At the same time from within Bumblebee Sam shouted, “There's Optimus,” as he pointed at the semi.

Optimus and the other land-based bots slammed on their brakes, all doing rapid U-turns to join the others. Windblade and Whirl circled around to follow and guard the convoy from above.

Now traveling in a sort of pack the Autobots and soldiers raced down the four lane highway trying to keep ahead of the pursuing Decepticons. Somewhere behind Optimus, Ironhide, Ratchet, and the twins Bonecrusher growled as he started forcing and throwing cars out of his way.

“What the-“ Sydney said at the sound of sirens as she looked in the passenger side mirror.

Ahead of her within Bumblebee Sam was turned around to stare back at Barricade who was using his sirens to try and get closer to them.

“No, no, no, no, no.”

  
Mikaela glanced over at him, “What?”

  
Sam groaned, “It's the same cop!” Mikaela looked in the rear view mirror at the cop car, trying not to confuse it with Prowl, “Block them, block them, block them,” Sam continued aloud as if the bots behind them would hear him.

  
Bonecrusher, fed up with not being able to get to the Autobots, roared as he transformed and smashed through a bus.

“Optimus…” Sydney trailed off as she stared at the Decepticon behind them.

“I cannot do anything with you still in my cab,” Optimus informed her.

Sydney slid across the bench seat and opened his driver side door.

“What are you doing?” He asked sternly.

Sydney tossed the radio a smirk, “I believe this is as far as we go together.”

“Sydney, don’t-“

She leapt from his cab.

Mikaela gasped in horror, “Oh my God.”

Sydney tumbled into the bed of Ironhide’s altmode, slamming into the far side of it and startling the bot.

“Go get him!” She shouted over the wind.

Optimus slammed on his breaks and transformed, turning and charging Bonecrusher. A minute later they disappeared over the side of the highway.

  
“You alright, Syd?” Claire asked as she stuck her head out the passenger window.

“That was terrifying. I wasn’t actually sure I could make it,” Sydney admitted.

“They why did you do it? There are bots with us who have no one riding with them!”

“Because Optimus stays behind to fight Bonecrusher in the movie. We have to try and keep as much the same as possible.”

Claire sighed, “Fine. Let me pull you in!”

Barricade suddenly came roaring up behind them.

  
“Hold that thought!” Sydney held up a finger as she stood, bracing herself against Ironhide’s cab.

Ironhide must have understood her intentions because the tailgate suddenly dropped open to make her jump easier. She gave the bot a thank-you pat before she ran and jumped off the back. Flying through the air she activated her gauntlets and used her momentum to slam her fist down into Barricade’s hood. Surprised, the con swerved violently. Sydney stumbled only to catch herself on the side mirror just before the pavement.

“Sydney!” Claire yelled over the wind, panic in her voice.

A horn honked as Sideswipe dropped back beside Barricade, “Jump!”

Sydney pulled herself back on to the hood, taking care to smash the windshield before she, tumbled more than jumped, off the Decepticon.

Sideswipe transformed and scooped her up before transforming back down into his altmode, Sydney safely in his passenger seat. She was clawing at the leather, trying to calm herself.

“Let’s not try that again, shall we?” Sideswipe chuckled.

Sydney could only nod in agreement.

“Sydney, what the hell were you thinking?” Annabeth’s demand suddenly came over the comm link.

“I wasn’t,” Sydney mumbled, “Glad to know you’re still alive. How’s Sue?”

“She’s perfectly fine. And thanks, you too. How’s the taser wound?” She was a lot calmer this time.

Sydney was suddenly acutely aware of the blood dripping down her back and the pain from where she had once been stitched up, “Healing nicely.”

“Liar! You ripped your stitches with that stunt didn’t you?” Miko was even angrier than Annabeth had been.

“Maybe a little,” Sydney shrugged.

“Sideswipe?” Miko questioned.

The bot instantly sold her out, “Definitely did.”

Sydney jabbed her elbow into the seat, “Thanks for nothing.”

“Hey! You’re already bleeding on my seats please don’t hit me too,” The bot exclaimed.

“Sorry about that.”

“Small price to pay for one less Decepticon to deal with,” Sideswipe reassured her.

“Really?” Sydney turned to see for herself that the con had disappeared, “I didn’t think I did that much damage.”

“Who cares? He’s gone now.”


	19. Worlds Collide (League Of Legends)

**Do we fight to hold our heads up high**

**And beat the drum to what we love?**

**Risk the fall, oh we have felt it all**

**Come crashing down from far above**

**Stars arising, countless worlds colliding**

**Only one will take it all** **  
** **Can we bring to fall the giants**

**Can we make the final call**

 

**We are the ones**

**To ignite the darkened skies**

**The champions**

**Of a world that we defy** **  
** **A solemn reign**

**Of the few who rise up high**

**And we all fight**

**At the last light**

 

The trip into the city seemed to take too long for everyone’s taste.

 

“We need radios for Epps,” Lennox radioed a few blocks in.

 

Everyone stood guard outside while Lennox ran into a pawn shop.

 

“Come on, let's go! Mount up!” Lennox ordered as he came running back to his vehicle.

  
“Move out! Move out! Go! Go!” Someone behind them relayed to the others.

  
“Here, I got shortwave radios.”

  
Epps stared at him in disbelief, “Wait. What am I supposed to do with these?” His eyes clearly saying ‘what the fuck, man?’

  
Lennox glared back, “Well, use them! It's all we got!”

 

Epps settled into defeat as the convoy traveled on.

 

“This is like RadioShack dinosaur radios or something, man,” he complained one last time, “I'm only gonna get 20 or 30 miles out of these things,” Epps informed Lennox before he started trying to radio for back up, “Are there any aircraft orbiting the city?”

 

As if on que an F-22 flew overhead.

  
“F-22 at twelve o'clock,” Lennox spoke, “Alright, I want planes for air cover and get Blackhawks on station to extract that Cube. You got it?”

 

They stopped shortly after. Everyone except the gunners climbing out to check weapons, ammo, and positions.

 

Annabeth ran past the soldiers and Autobots, more than willing to shove anyone in her way to the pavement and step over them, to regroup with and check over her team.

 

“Air Force has arrived! Pop smoke!” Lennox announced as he climbed out of his vehicle.

 

Eight pairs of eyes shot over in his direction.

 

“That’s not Air Force,” someone called out to him.

 

She was drowned out by the plane flying over again and no one could tell who had spoke. Green smoke started to appear around them, masking any gestures that were made across the parked convoy.

 

“Raptor, Raptor, do you copy? We have you visual. Green smoke is the mark. Provide air cover and vector Black Hawks for extraction,” Epps radioed.

 

“Will!”

 

The man looked over in confusion as Annabeth ran back towards him.

 

“That’s not us!” She all but screamed over the jet engines, panic clear on her face while looks of desperation followed after her.

 

Lennox started to question her as she made a fast stop in front of him.

 

Ironhide transformed behind them, “It's Starscream!”

  
Epps picked up the radio, this time his voice shaking with fear, “Please tell me you copy.”

 

Lennox looked away from Ironhide and back at Annabeth. His thoughts written across his face, they were screwed if the Decepticons were already here.

 

At the sight of Ironhide and now Bumblebee, civilians had started yelling and running all around the makeshift squadron. Meanwhile the soldiers were shouting orders over each other only adding to the chaos and confusion.

 

“Back up! Take cover!” Ironhide told them as he walked over to a recently abandoned Furby tractor trailer, “Bumblebee!”

 

“Everybody move!” Annabeth yelled as she ran towards the nearest civilians to direct them out of the area, “Get out of the city and take as many people with you as you can,” she told them.

 

Lennox finally moved, “No, no, no! Move!” He ordered his team.

 

“Back up! Back up!” Ironhide repeated as he and Bumblebee held up the tractor trailer as a shield.

 

“Retreat! Fall back!”

 

Starscream started to fly towards them again.

 

“Incoming!”

 

The blast hit- cutting off any further warning for Ironhide and sending everyone flying.

 

A thick haze of dust and debris hung over them as everyone started to collect themselves.

 

Alexis climbed up on the parked car Sydney had shoved her and Mikaela behind to survey the damage. Yards up the road Susan coughed up a mixture of dust and spit catching Sam’s attention and making him reach for her. From somewhere in the midst of the soldiers Annabeth blinked hard, trying to get her vision to focus on the buildings above her.

 

“Anybody hurt?” Miko called out as she snatched a medical duffel out of the back end of Ratchet’s altmode.

 

“Clear the area!” A soldier yelled as the team tried to collect itself.

 

Nadia sat up and half patted, half shook Lynelle beside her, “You still kicking?”

 

“That hurt like hell,” Lynelle groaned as she rolled to the side, “Help me check on the others.”

 

The two of them stood and headed to Claire and Prue first.

 

The dust was settling and everyone slowly became visible and easier to assess.

 

Bumblebee gave a pained electronic whine from the other side of Sam.

 

Sam stood and started towards him only to freeze when the dust settled more around his guardian. He was missing the bottom half of his legs, “Oh my God. Bumblebee? No. Your legs! Your legs.”

 

“Bee!” Mikaela exclaimed as she was chased by Alexis towards them.

 

Bumblebee whined again.

 

“Annabeth?”

 

Annabeth blinked again as Lennox came in and out of focus above her.

 

She groaned as she placed a hand to her head and tried to sit up, “Ow.”

 

Lennox held out his arm to stop her, “Don’t sit up just yet.”

 

“I’m fine. I have to check on my team,” Annabeth told him as she pushed his arm away and sat up the rest of the way.

 

“We’re fine, Chief. All accounted for and no major injuries,” Sydney informed her as she knelt beside the pair.

 

“Good,” Annabeth nodded as she allowed Lennox to help her stand, “Then let’s get to work,” with that she walked over to help Miko with the injured soldiers.

 

“Lexi! MK!” Sydney shouted as she waved the two girls over, not bothering to call Susan over too seeing as protecting Sam was still her job despite the boy’s feelings about them.

 

“Yeah?” Alexis asked.

 

“I need you to help me get the civilians out of this area. I’m not saying you have to leave because I know you wouldn’t listen anyway, just help me evacuate everyone.”

 

They nodded and separated to cover more ground and people. Those uninjured were told to help people to get out of the possible battle zone and those injured were helped over to Miko if possible.

  
Soldiers ran around and there was a blur of assorted indistinct shouting from everyone.

  
Lennox ducked behind a large piece of debris Epps was stationed behind trying to increase the range of the radios, “What the hell was that?” He demanded as he hit Epps in the shoulder.

  
Epps glared back as he picked up the radio he had dropped, “What are you talking about?”

  
“What do you mean, what am I talking about? They shot at us!” Lennox yelled back angrily.

  
“F-22 pilots would never fly below buildings. That's alien. That ain't friendly!” Epps yelled right back.

 

“Will!” They looked up to see Annabeth standing there with her hands on her hips, “We tried to warn you. It’s not Epps’ fault you didn’t listen or ask.”

 

He started to argue when she narrowed her glare. He shut up almost instantly.

 

Epps laughed after she was called away, “Damn. That was fast.”

 

“What was fast?” Lennox demanded as he checked over his gun.

 

“Her having you wrapped around her finger.”

 

Again Lennox started to argue.

 

“Man, I know you and Sarah have been having problems. And I also know from talking to Belle that Sarah’s far beyond halfway out the door. She’s not coming back in that door, I promise you that. It’s time to start trying to move forward,” Lennox nodded acceptingly at his best friend’s words, “Besides, Annabeth’s cute, a natural leader, and can hold her own in a fight. She’s perfect for you,” Epps continued.

 

“Shut up!” Lennox scowled as he smacked Epps’ arm.

 

Epps laughed again as he went back to the radio and Lennox started to check on what they had brought with them for supplies and ammo.

 

Nadia was almost plowed over by Mikaela as she ran past towards a tow truck that had been abandoned in wake the driver’s fear.

 

“I guess she’s done telling civilians to leave,” the dark skinned woman said to Lynelle with a shrug. She tied back her long black hair and started helping the blonde move a large piece of debris off one of the soldiers.

 

A ways up from them Prue was trying to free a woman and her child from a half crushed car. It wasn’t until Prowl realized why she was yanking on the car’s door that he transformed and carefully detached the roof. Calmed and reassured he was friendly by Prue, the woman grabbed up her baby and climbed up into Prowl’s servo. He set them on the ground before turning to retrieve the diaper bag and her purse. He handed them over and allowed Prue to escort them to safety.

 

“You gotta get up. You're okay. You're okay,” Sam was telling Bumblebee.

  
Bumblebee gave an electronic groan as he crawled towards Sam.

  
“Come on!”

  
Just then the voice of a Black Hawk Pilot cut over the radio, “Army Black Hawk inbound to your location. Over.”

 

“Alpha two seven three degrees, ten miles. November Victor, one point two clicks north,” Epps related back to the pilot.

 

Everyone stopped what they were doing when a tank shot rang out.

  
“Whoa!” Lennox exclaimed as he ducked, pushing one of his men down with him.

 

They turned to see a tank driving over a row of parked cars.

  
“Move out! Let's go!” Lennox ordered as he team grabbed their weapons and followed him.

 

All over again civilians were screaming and shouting as they ran from the tank.

 

Two fighter jets that definitely were not human piloted by also definitely were not Starscream flew at them, firing as they neared and passed over head.

 

Everyone was sent flying again.

 

“You have got to be kidding me,” Claire complained as she pushed herself off the ground again.

 

“Windblade, Whirl! Deal with that!” Sydney barked as she helped Alexis up.

 

Both fighter jets took off after their attackers, more than willing to follow the woman’s orders with Optimus still missing.

 

“Everybody get up! Lennox, your team handles that tank! Sam stay with Bee! Alexis find Mikaela! And Autobots, make yourselves more than fucking cars!” She continued as everyone ran around her.

 

Susan finally ran over, covered in dirt and cuts but otherwise unharmed.

 

“I need you with Sam. Do you understand?” Sydney told her as she placed her hands on Susan’s shoulders, “Wherever he goes I want you right next to him. Keep him and the Allspark safe at all costs. Be brave and stay smart and you’ll both be just fine.” Sydney yanked her into a hug and held tight.

 

Before Susan could argue Sydney had let go and was running over to Miko, Claire, Prue, Lynelle, and Nadia.

 

Miko was the first to speak, “Everyone alright?”

“Nothing broken,” Nadia shrugged.

 

“Just…” Lynelle tried to search for more explanatory words than the one that came to mind, “Just really pissed off.”

 

“Good, then let’s go kick some aft,” Annabeth told them as she stepped into their circle.

 

She seemed more than a little out of it but still determined as ever.

 

Sydney stepped forward to hold her up right, “You okay, Chief?” She asked.

 

“Concussion maybe... It doesn’t matter though, we’ve got lives to save.”

 

Miko stopped her, “It does matter. Sit down.”

 

Everyone watched as Miko lead Annabeth back over to Ratchet.

 

Prue turned to Sydney, “Told you so. Orders?”

 

The others turned back to Sydney.

 

“I’m gonna keep Miko and Alexis, and probably Beth now, on evacuation. The rest of us are going to divide and conquer. I’ll stay here with Lennox and these bots and handle the source. Prue I need you to the east, Nadia the west, Lyn to the north, and Claire you to the south. Try to keep everything as contained as possible and save as many as you can. Help the bots in your direction if they need it and stay in communication with each other through them. I don’t need to lose any of you today or ever.”

 

“Let’s go turn some cons into scrap metal,” Lynelle grinned.

 

With that they separated, each taking two bots with them. That left Lennox’s team, Sydney, a busy Miko, Mikaela, an injured Annabeth and Bumblebee, and Alexis to fend off the arriving masses of Decepticons.

 

“Did you leave us a giant robot of our own?” Epps asked as Sydney stationed herself beside him.

 

She glanced up from loading the gun she had just picked up, “Uh…” she looked around only to find only Bumblebee, “Not unless someone can get Bumblebee mobile or Optimus shows up,” she noticed the expression Epps was giving her, “I know, I know. Not my best call but we’re stretched a little thin and there’s a whole hell a lot more Decepticons than we were prepared for already. Not to mention Megatron hasn’t even shown up yet.”

 

“Oh god… we’re gonna die aren’t we?” Burke asked as he stopped beside them.

 

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Sydney responded as she strapped the gun across her torso.

 

➖➖➖  
  


Two blocks to the west Nadia, Jazz, and Prowl had already ran into another Decepticon.

 

“Come on, Decepticon punk!” Jazz taunted as he approached the black con.

 

Prowl landed the first punch across the con’s faceplates as Windblade roared overheard, firing at one of the seekers she was chasing.

 

The Decepticon used the Autobot as a distraction to knock Prowl back into Jazz, the sudden movement sending them both to the pavement.

 

The con moved to gain the upper hand when Nadia ran between them already putting her headphones on.

 

She picked up her soundwave blaster as she walked calmly towards the snarling, ugly black alien in front of her music already pumping in her ears, “Hey bitch!” She pulled the trigger sending a blast of pure sound directly into his chassis.

 

He stumbled backwards under the force.

 

Jazz dropped in for a cross while Nadia continued her assault, “That all you got?”

 

Prowl got back to his feet as a second Decepticon approached. He fired on the red and orange sports car before it had the chance to transform. Angry, the con transformed and charged the bot.

 

He was tackled to the ground by Jazz before he could lay a servo on Prowl.

 

“You want a piece of me? You want a piece?” Jazz seethed as he wrestled with the con.

 

Prowl rolled his eyes as he turned to engage the black con with Nadia.

  
➖➖➖

 

“Concentrate your fire!” Lennox’s order rang out as they started to fire upon Devastator.

 

Devastator roared in response.

 

Sydney ran out past the soldiers, their gunfire acting as cover as she activated her gauntlets and made her assault on the con. Her right fist made contact with the metal plating of his leg as she plated herself and followed through with her entire body weight.

 

She and the dent in his leg had his full attention.

 

“Shit.” She moved to hit the other leg. Narrowly making her escape immediately after.

 

He roared in pain at her before starting towards her.

 

“Not today fuckface!” Another shot rang out as someone attempted to defer the con’s advance.

 

An explosion surrounded Devastator’s face, sending him tumbling backwards.

 

More than one person cheered behind her as Sydney ran at him again, this time ripping at any wires and energon lines she could get to with her small hands.

 

“Get back here!” Lennox called out to her as he ran up to drag her back.

 

He yelled orders to his team as he retreated with the brunette in tow, “Get our guys out of the way! Get out of here! Go! Get them out of the buggy! Move out!”

 

“We need air cover down here, now!” Epps radioed as they retreated back a few yards to a slightly safer location.

 

About half a block behind them Mikaela was in the middle of hotwiring a parked tow truck to try and get Bumblebee out of the battle zone.

 

She growled as she struggled with the wires, “Come on. Come on.”

 

Another minute of trying and the truck roared to life.

 

“Yes!” She screamed with joy before hauling herself into the cab and throwing it into drive.

 

She pulled up next to Sam and Bumblebee- scaring the shit out of Sam- before opening the door and standing up.

 

“Lexi, Susan! Guys, help me with this,” she spoke before getting back in and maneuvering the truck so they could easily strap Bumblebee to the back.

  
➖➖➖

 

Three and a half blocks to the north Lynelle and the Terror Twins finally ran into trouble in the form of Decepticons as Megatron flew overhead.

 

“Please tell me that’s not buckethead,” Sideswipe said as he moved to stand over Lynelle.

 

The Decepticon leader landed in the alley just ahead of them as if answering his plea.

 

“Megatron!” he growled.

 

He emerged from the shadowed alleyway still growling in Cybertronian.

 

“It's Megatron! Retreat!” Sunstreaker told Lynelle.

 

Having cleared the area of humans besides Lynelle the scream the sounded could only belong to Lynelle herself. She turned tail and started running back towards Sydney and Lennox.

 

“Move!” Sideswipe told his twin as he dragged him after Lynelle, hoping for some comfort room between them and the warlord they were about to have to engage.

 

The blonde had stopped about a block back and was stationed behind a pile of wrecked cars.

 

“So what’s the plan?” Sideswipe asked as he knelt in front of her.

 

“Why are you asking me?” She demanded as she stole a peek between the cars at the- in her opinion, terrifying- Decepticon.

 

“Because Sunny and I aren’t exactly battle strategists here. We’re frontliners! We take orders not give them!” Panic was rising in Sideswipe’s voice.

 

“Well I always have Annabeth or Sydney giving me orders so I never have to give them!” Lynelle hissed back.

 

“Uh, guys… how about we argue later and fight now?” Sunstreaker suggested as he pointed in Megatron’s direction.

 

Sideswipe and Lynelle looked over at Megatron and then back at each other, “Right.”

 

“I say all three of us just charge him and hope for the best until Optimus shows up,” Lynelle suggested as she untied her whip from her side.

 

The twins shared a doubtful look.

 

“Then I hope he gets here within the next ten minutes because I’m not ready to join Bumblebee in the mute bot club just yet,” Sideswipe muttered at he pulled out his swords.

 

Sunstreaker nodded as he activated his blasters, “Oh and Sides?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Don’t call me Sunny!”

 

With that Sunstreaker charged.

  
➖➖➖

 

Lennox and company had moved back to cover the kids as they tried to strap Bumblebee to the tow truck.

 

Lennox was listening to Mikaela instruct the others on what she could while working with her own cables by the Autobot’s chassis.

 

“Sir!” Burke shouted from his position monitoring Devastator for signs of life.

 

Lennox turned to address him, “What's going on?”

 

“Sir! That tank thing's getting back up.”   
  
Lennox cast him a tired look, “Oh, these things just don't die.”

 

Behind them there was a short yell followed by a Cybertronian roar.

 

Roughly seven blocks away Blackout and another three Decepticons were standing atop one of the buildings.

 

“Oh, we're so dead,” Lennox groaned as he slumped against the tow truck.

 

“Come on man, focus on protecting the cube and worry about dying later,” Sydney commented as she climbed on to the tow truck to help Alexis.

 

“Wrap it around the head,” Sam continued as the five of them continue to work.

 

“Right! Sam! Where's the Cube?” Lennox’s demanded.

 

Sam pointed at Alexis’ feet, “Right there.”   
  


Lennox nodded before jogged a few yards away.

  
“And take that and wrap it around the base and then put it around his neck, okay?” Sam was saying as Lennox ran back.

  
“Epps, get those Black Hawks here!” Lennox grabbed him and pointed to the building he had just decided on, “That building.”

  
“Alright, I can't leave my guys back there,” Lennox started to Sam as he set down his gun and took out a flare, “So here, take this flare,” he handed it to Sam who suddenly looked terrified, “Okay, there's a tall, white building with statues on top. Go to the roof. Set the flare-“

 

“No.”

  
“Signal the chopper and set the flare-“

  
Sam interrupted him again, “No, no. I can't do this!”

  
Lennox grabbed him by the front of his sweatshirt, yanking him in close and into the air an inch or two, “Listen to me! You're a soldier now! Alright? I need you to take this Cube,” Lennox grabbed the Cube and shoved it into Sam’s gut, “Get it into military hands while we hold them off, or a lot of people are gonna die.” His glare softened at the last bit knowing full well that he could be one of those people.

 

He let go of Sam and turned to Mikaela and Alexis as Sydney moved around him to fill Epps in on Susan going to protect Sam on his way to the building.

 

“You got to go. You got to go,” Lennox said to the two girls, much softer with them than he had been with Sam.

  
“No, I'm not leaving.”

  
“You need to go. No, get out!” Mikaela was too similar to his daughter Annabelle right now and it only made Lennox want her to get to safety more.

 

Mikaela fixed him with a fiery glare, “No, I'm not leaving till I get Bumblebee out of here, okay?”

 

“Okay,” Lennox deflated under her determination, “Okay. I get it.”

 

Epps was standing in the driver side door of the truck as if he was trying for a better signal, “Army Black Hawk requested. Immediate evac for civilian boy and girl with precious cargo. Headed to rooftop marked by flare.”

 

“Sam, Susan will protect you,” Sydney spoke calmly to try and soothe his nerves.

  
Sam nodded, “Okay.”

 

“Epps, where are those planes?” Lennox demanded as he regrouped with the rest of the soldiers.

 

Sam moved away from everyone to try and steal his nerves while Susan said her goodbyes to Sydney.

 

“Sam!” Mikaela called out. He looked up as she ran up to him panting, “No matter what happens,” she made sure to maintain eye contact as if she was trying to instill courage in him, “I'm really glad I got in that car with you.”

 

Susan expanded her staff as she walked towards them, “Come on.”

 

He nodded to Mikaela before they started running towards the building Lennox had indicated.

 

Alexis nearly fell from the truck as another explosion rang out.

 

Bumblebee buzzed at Mikaela as she picked herself up off the ground.

 

“I’m alright,” she replied as she moved to finish the cables.

 

Everyone’s blood ran cold as a voice rang out the most terrifying order they had heard all day: “Decepticons, attack!”


End file.
